The deaf queen
by skitternimble
Summary: after breaking up with Rumpleteazer, Mistoffelees stops practicing magic. To cheer him up, Coricopat and Tantomile set him up with their deaf cousin. Please review! Misto/OC.
1. The arrival

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: In football, the huddle was invented by deaf players who didn't want the other team to see them signing what their next play would be. Even if they were playing a hearing team they would all huddle up in case someone on that team knew sign language. Hearing teams picked the huddle by playing deaf schools.**

**When people hear this their reaction is usually something like "really? Wait, so deaf people can play football?"**

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><p>It was morning in the Jellicle junkyard, the sun was rising, casting radient beams across the landscape. The jellicles were waking up, starting their daily routines, but not Quaxo. Quaxo lay in his nest staring at the ceiling, thinking about everything that he'd been through in the past several weeks. He'd been seeing Rumpleteazer, a thieving calico queen with whom he had been completely infatuated; they had broken up because she was totally addicted to stealing. He thought he could get used to her going out to rob with her brother at night, but he had his morals and was always bothered by it, so he ended it with Teazer. They remained friends, but he couldn't go out with someone when he was always aware that their favorite pass time was taking others' property. The thing was, he was heartbroken, he had been alone so long, he had never had a queenfriend before. He wanted to settle down with her immediately because he didn't think he would ever get another chance.<p>

Getting up out of his nest, Quaxo put on his bow tie and washed his face, realizing he couldn't just lay around all day. As he groggily groomed his head fur, he realized he had a meeting with the psychic twins Coricopat and Tantomile that morning. He looked at his clock and saw he had five minutes to get there. He rushed out the door and ran past mountains of scrap metal and other junk, and splashed other cats as he ran through a puddle.

He finally arrived at the old wardrobe the twins' used as a lair, all the way on the other side of the junkyard. He would have normally teleported, but because using magic takes concentration, he didn't want to use any before he was completely awake. He walked up to the bottom drawer and knocked, but no one answered.

"We've been waiting for you Mistoffolees," the twins said right behind him. Mistoffolees jumped as they said that and turned around to face them. They backed up some, moving in perfect unison, their expressions blank and emotionless. Misto took a deep breath and sat down in front of them, panting because of the scare he had just had and from running all the way there.

"So why did you want to talk to me this morning? Is there a magic council meeting or something?" he asked.

Tantomile shook her head and said, "It's nothing like that Mistoffolees, it's"-"actually a personal matter," her brother finished.

Misto who was fully awake by this time was surprised by this, because the twins normally didn't discuss personal matters with anyone. "Allow us to explain Misto," said Cori, "it concerns another cat," put in his sister.

"another cat?" asked Misto. The twins nodded and then proceded to explain, "our cousin Lyplora is moving in with us," said Tantomile.

"Her owners are moving and don't want her anymore, so she has nowhere else to go, we need your help Mistoffelees," said Cori.

"What do you need my help with?" the black and white tom asked.

"Our cousin is deaf," explained Tantomile, "we know you know sign language and"- "we thought because the other cats are more willing to listen to you, you could help her get settled in and help the other cats to except her"-"and teach them sign language," they said, repeatedly interrupting each other.

Misto looked at them confused, "why wouldn't they listen to you?" he asked.

Cori, trying not to seem sarcastic, explained, "because even though you are pretty socially awkward, you are related to some of them and they are at least impressed by you"-"but they consider us freaks," said his sister.

"So you honestly think that they won't listen to you?" asked Misto.

They both nodded in response, Misto didn't know how to react, so he continued to question them. "So what is it I need to get across to them?" he asked exasperatedly.

Tanto rolled her eyes and said, "You know how they treat anyone who's different, they will probably yell in her face thinking that will make her understand"-"or they will shun her completely, you need to teach them how to communicate with her."

Misto was getting annoyed by this point, partly because they kept cutting each other off, and partly because what they were saying didn't make sense. They could just as easily help her get settled and could teach everyone sign language. Why did they need him?

"Alright guys," he said, "seriously, why can't you do this yourselves, I don't mind doing this for you, but what you have said doesn't make sense."

The twins looked at each other for a little while, obviously using their telepathy, and then turned back to the tux cat in front of them and explained.

"Misto," they said together, "you have been so distracted lately because of your break up with Teazer, it appears you are moping and wasting your powers, so we thought you needed a distraction."

Misto didn't know what to say, he hadn't been practicing magic much lately, and he knew what they were saying was true. He finally said, "fine, I'll do it."

Misto knew what they were trying to do, and didn't mind helping out, but he was annoyed because at that point all he wanted to do was sit around and mope, he didn't want them meddling with his business.

Cori left to go pick up his cousin from the back of the apartment building she had been dumped at. When he finally got back, he found Misto and Tanto sitting in the yard discussing mind reading. They both stood up as Cori approached with this gorgeous queen. She was long and thin, had a brown, white and black coat that was spotted and dubbed, with a pink nose and bright blue eyes.

Tanto signed while saying, "Hello cousin, this is mistoffolees, he will be your interpreter."

The young queen turned to the black tom and signed, "Hello, I'm Lyplora." Misto just smiled and nodded, he was dumbstruck, she was gorgeous.


	2. She's deaf

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: the snake, turtle, housefly, and starfish are all deaf. **

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><p>They immediately went inside the twins' lair and showed Lyplora where she would be staying,<br>it would of course be temporary, the plan was that once she was an accepted member of the tribe,  
>she would find a lair of her own.<p>

After a lunch of mouse cakes, it was decided to go ask Old Deuteronomy if she could stay, he was pretty fair about letting new members in, as long as they weren't known henchcats or didn't try to stay there secretly, cats of any kind could live in the junkyard.

They walked out into the bright sunlight, blinking from just coming out of the dimly lit den, when suddenly, the cat Misto least wanted to see at that moments approached.

The Rum Tum Tugger was a handsome main coon with a thick lion's mane and a way with the queens.  
>He was the sexiest tom in the junkyard, and he knew it; flirting with multiple queens at once as well as going from relationship to relationship, if you could even call them that. At first Misto tried to get them to walk in the opposite direction so Tugger wouldn't notice the new queen, but it was too late.<p>

"Quaxo, twins!" yelled Tugger as he ran to catch up with them, "who is this gorgeous queen you have with you?"

Misto said, "she's new here, if you don't mind we need to go see Old Deuteronomy,"  
>trying to hurry and get away, knowing what was coming.<p>

"Well what's the hurry, surely because she's new she would want to try and make some new friends," said Tugger, with more than friendship on his mind.

So Misto and Tugger started arguing, Misto claiming that he needed to get her to Old D quickly so all the formalities would be behind them, Tugger just being Tugger.

Lyplora stood there watching them talk, she could tell by lip reading that they were talking about her,  
>she really hated being referred to in the third person (err, felinson), she started to look irritated.<p>

Tugger noticed this and turned to her and put his arm around her, pulling her uncomfortably close.  
>She looked away and didn't say anything, so Tugger asked, "what's the matter, human got your tongue?"<p>

Misto was yelling at Tugger to leave her alone and the twins were trying to use some of their mind tricks to distract him, but Tugger was completely focused on this luscious new queen.

Lyplora tried not to look at Tugger and finally got one of her arms free and started signing to Mistoffelees,  
>"nice way to introduce me to the other cats, interpreter."<p>

She pulled away from Tugger and signed, "can we please hurry and get me signed up for the tribe or whatever we where doing before this joker interrupted us?"

Tugger watched, upset he was being ignored, and confused. "I'm sorry, what's going on?" he asked.

"Tugger, this is Lyplora, what you saw her doing was sign language, she's deaf.  
>Her humans dumped her"-"She is our cousin," said the twins.<p>

Tugger turned back to the queen and said, "oh, u, sorry. I guess I better go,  
>but then you don't even realize what I'm telling you... so yeah". Tugger just ran, literally sprinting away.<p>

Lyplora smirked and signed,"typical," rolling her eyes.

What she didn't show was that she hated being talked to like that. She could lip read, although it was difficult, and signing was easier, but she had had confrontations like that before, and was fully aware that other cats wouldn't be comfortable at first.

Tantomile suggested that to avoid further confrontation, Misto put an invisibility spell on them, Misto was reluctant, because he hadn't used magic for days, but finally agreed. Once invisible, they reached the great tire without further delay.

They slunk behind a pile of garbage as it wore off, so they wouldn't just appear out of nowhere.  
>Misto approahed Old Deuteronomy and asked if it was alright to speak with him, and the old cat conceded and Misto brought up Lyplora and the twins.<p>

The twins explained the whole situation, inturrupting each other multiple times. Deuteronomy sat and listened patiently, Munkustrap came up and listened as well, sitting close to his father and looking very important.

"So what you must remember is that when you speak to her, actually speak to her and not Mistoffelees"  
>-"because he is simply interpreting."<p>

Old Deuteronomy nodded his head and said facing Lyplora, "Lyplora, it would be an honor having you stay here with us as a member of our tribe," Mistoffelees interpreting into sign language as the old jellicle spoke.

Munkustrap stood up and asked with concern, "do you need for us to call everyone together and explain to them how they are to treat you?"

Lyplora looked to Misto who signed everything, smiled but shook her head no, and signed,  
>"I'd rather get to know everyone normally, thanks though." Munkustrap looked to Misto, and then nodded.<p>

They said goodbye and then got down off the tire and showed Lyplora around the junkyard,  
>not being bothered by other cats because the twins sent subconscious signals to the other cats that they didn't want to be bothered. They showed her all the best places to hunt and the only non-polluted water hole,<br>the best places to sun or take a catnap, and the hidden area between two garbage piles where they and Misto practiced magic.

It eventually got dark and Misto asked the casual question of what they wanted to do for dinner (meaning rats or mice.)

At that the twins raced off leaving Misto with Lyplora, and sent the message to Misto's mind, "we set up a meal for you at the front gate garbage pile, goodnight."


	3. The prank

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: Beethoven suffered from severe hearing loss throughout his life until he was almost completely deaf. That fact alone proves that he was a genius considering that he couldn't hear but he could still imagine what hours of symphony would sound like. His lasts words were, "I shall hear in heaven." As I've said, it depends on what the individual wants, and that's what Beethoven wanted, but while he was alive, he didn't let his hearing loss keep him from doing what he loved.**

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><p><strong>all dialogue in this chapter is in sign language<strong>

Lyplora stared in the direction her cousins had run off in and then turned to Mistoffelees and asked, "so what now?"

Misto who was a little shocked about what had just happened looked to her and answered, "apparently your cousins set us up on a dinner date, we have a meal waiting for us at the front gate garbage pile."

"Oh, well, why pass up a meal you don't have to hunt yourself?" asked Lyplora with a shrug.

Misto nodded and they headed towards the front gate garbage pile where there was a tire set up with a large dead rabbit on a platter and two bowls of cream on it. They both sat down and started on the cream, Misto taking little sips as if not very interested.

Lyplora noticed this and asked him, "what's wrong? don't you like cream?"

Misto sighed and answered, "actually, I love cream, its not that, its just that I recently had to call it quits with my queenfriend."

"Sorry," replied Lyplora, doing the sign for sorry by making a fist and turning it back and fourth over her heart. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"Well, it was with a queen who lives here in the junkyard, we broke up because of our different moral values. Her favorite pass time is stealing, I just couldn't handle that. We have decided to stay friends though," explained Misto. "So how about you? Are you single?"

"Well, if you really want to know, I was engaged, but my tomfriend got run over and I haven't been in a relationship since."

There was an awkward pause in the conversation, Misto finally asked her, "how long ago was that?"

"About a year now," and she left it at that.

Trying to change the topic, Misto asked if she had any hobbies or interests.

"Oh, I enjoy pulling pranks on other cats, reading, art of all kinds, playing card games like solitar, go fish or poker, how about you? What are your hobbies?"

"Well, I like studying ancient magical cats, playing card games as well, dancing... wait, you like to pull pranks on other cats?"

"Yes Misto, like how I had the twins put ten stool softeners in your bowl of cream!"

Misto stared at her, and then looks down at the empty bowl, he looks back up at her and she had an evil look on her face.

"You're bluffing, there is no way you could get your cousins to agree to that." They stared each other down, trying to see who would be the first to crack up, after a few seconds, Lyplora starts snickering in an odd, muffled sort of way.

"I knew you were bluffing!"

"Yeah, I was bluffing, but the look on your face was worth it," then after a pause, she asked,  
>"so what's the deal with that mained freak from earlier?"<p>

Misto rolled his eyes at this, "who, Tugger? He pretty much thinks he can have any queens he wants whenever he wants them."

"Yeah, I figured that, but I've never had a complete stranger put their arm around me before."

"Well, Tugger was so embarrassed after we told him you're deaf I doubt he'll try making anymore passes on you for a while."

"hopefully. So what sorts of magic do you practice?"

Misto became very bashful at this, he told her how he could shoot lightning and teleport and pull kittens out of hats, so fast you could almost say he was stammering with his hands.

"Wow, your not used to explaining your magic, do the others treat you like some sort of exhibit or something? What I meant wasn't what kind of tricks you can do, but do you model what you do after any specific field of magical practice?"

Misto was amazed at this question, it was true, the other cats were mostly entertained by what he could do. The only time he could think of where they actually appreciated his powers for what they were was when he brought back Old Deuteronomy at the ball two years before. This cat was actually asking him an intellectual question concerning his magic!

"Well, there are many different fields of non-psychic magical practice, including healing, defensive practices, transformations, making things disappear and reappear, casting spells on individuals or objects for different purposes can be divided into so many different categories its difficult to know where to start. I suppose you could say that I don't specalize, I try to cover the general fields of magical study. There are some who are forced to specalize, like those cats who are born specifically with the ability to heal, although that is a rare gift."

Lyplora was simply fascinated, "could you teach me more about magic in general? I would like to learn about its history with you because it seems like such an interesting topic."

"Alright, I'll demonstrate some right now if you like, you enjoy pulling pranks, how about we pull something on The Rum Tum Tugger?"

Lyplora looked delighted, "what do you have in mind Misto?"

"I was thinking we could sneak into his lair and I could cast a spell on him that would turn his main pink, it would of course wear off in a few days..."

Lyplora looked more and more excited as Misto explained how it would work, they planned to sneak into his den to cast the spell on him as soon as he fell asleep.

They waited until almost midnight, hiding amongst the garbage piles until the mained tom finally went into his lair which was an old chest with pieces of cardboard as room dividers. They waited until Misto heard Tugger's snoring and he magicked them inside. They silently crept into Tugger's nestroom and saw him curled up with a small toy bear under his arm. The two mischief makers barely kept from laughing until Misto got very serious and approached the nest. Lyplora watched, completely fascinated as Misto begun whispering magic words she couldn't make out by lip reading and his hands started to glow. He ran his hands all over Tugger's main and then pulled them away suddenly, turned to her and led her out of the lair.

Once they were a good distance away from Tugger's layer, Misto explained about the spell he had used, "its a spell developed by the cat witch Gwendolen, she was a notorious prankster and came up with some really good spells for embarrasments of such kinds. When Tugger wakes up tommorow his main will be a bright hot pink!"

Lyplora was cracking up at this and on the verge of tears, "I used to pull pranks on the twins when we were kittens until they got their psychic powers and could predict what was coming, oh staying here is going to be such good fun!"

They walked through the junkyard together, discussing pranks and magic and art, Misto didn't know much about art, although he did have his opinions of what was good and what wasn't. Lyplora explained things like the difference between realism and impressionism and various cats who inspired their artist owners and what not. Misto was especially interested in how appparently the Mona Lisa smile was copied from Leonardo da Vinci's cat, he had always wondered about that.

They eventually reached the great tire and sat on top of it, both looking up at the stars, sitting together and thinking for a few minutes. Lyplora wondering something about Misto's name, finally asked him what she had been thinking for a while, "Misto, when Tugger ran up to us earlier, I noticed it didn't look like he called you Mistoffelees, what did he call you?"

"He called me Quaxo, my name is Quaxo but my stage name is Mistoffelees, I'm generally called by both."

Lyplora thought about this for a moment, and then replied, "Well, I geuss I'll call you Quaxoffelees from now on then," finger spelling the name very deliberately.

"Oh no," He signed, trying to stop from laughing, "please don't call me that, I hate being called that."

"Why, it's cute?"

"Because..., its so ludicrus! Quaxoffelees, really?"

"yeah, why not? Or maybe I can call you Mistoffaxo!"

"Quaxoffelees it is," Misto pouted.

"you know Im just teasing, I wouldn't call you something you hate."

"But you'll pull pranks on other cats though."

"hey, anybody with a good sense of humor can laugh at themselves when somebody pranks them, but but I'm not going to call you something that would bother you."

After chatting a little more about the history of magical cats and cats throughout art, both the jellicles got really tired.

They walked back to the twins' lair, but when they got there the place was silent. Misto hoped this meant the twins were already asleep, so he magicked Lyplora straight into her nestroom so as not to wake them. He then teleported himself back home and curled up in his nest, thinking over everything that had happened that day.


	4. Cassi's secret

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: American Sign Language is the third most widely used language in the United States. **

**Which is why I can't take a class in ASL instead of Spanish and it count as a foreign language. :(**

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><p>The next day, everybody in the jellicle junkyard was awakened bright and early by the sound of screams. The jellicles begun to search for the source of the screams which came in the direction of Tugger's den. They begun to gather outside his layer and waited for the maine coon to imerge. Finally he burst out the side opening of his den screaming and pulling at his mane which was a very vivid hot pink. Everybody was starring and some where laughing; Etcetera thought it was really cute, while some of the older cats thought he had gotten what he deserved. Either way the poor tom ran off to hide among the garbage, Munkustrap ordering everybody to leave his brother alone.<p>

Quaxo woke up to the sound of horrified screams and chuckled slightly to himself as he rolled out of bed and started to clean his head fur. After getting ready he stepped out of his layer and found that the twins were right outside his door waiting for him.

"Misoffelees, we know it was you and our cousin who"-"colored Tugger's mane pink."

Misto didn't want to deal with them right then, he wanted to see Lyplora.

Tantomile rolled her eyes and said, "Haven't you considered that Tugger is actually hurt by this?"

Misto actually hadn't thought of that, all he had cared about at the time was how funny it would be to turn Tugger's main pink. Tugger was a jerk, but he was also Misto's friend, and he realized how much he had probably hurt Tugger's ego.

Misto looked away from the twins and then said with a resigned look, "I'll talk to Lyplora about it later, I just don't want her to think I'm trying to be controling and I want to make sure our relationship is well established before bringing up something we might argue about."

The twins nodded and said in unison, "understandable, now are you ready to introduce her to some of the tribe? Oh, and we also expect breakfast."

"Fine, so where is Lyplora?"

"Still getting ready, she slept in because Tugger's screams didn't wake her"-"we informed her you would teleport her here."

Misto rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers and she appeared next to him.

"I could really get used to traveling by magic," she signed after realizing what had happened. She greeted Misto and they all went inside.

Misto didn't have much in his den at the moment, but he had a box of kittie kibble and some powdered milk he added water to, so they pretty much ate the equivalent of cold cerial that morning. The twins were of course not pleased.

After breakfast it was decided to go to the water hole to meet other cats, so that's where they headed.

When they got there, there was a small group of queens who approached them, curious of the stranger. The group consisted of Bombalurina, Demeter, Demeter's daughter Jemima, and Cassandra.

"Hey, who's the newcomer?" asked Jemima, pointing to Lyplora.

Misto introduced her, saying, "everyone, this is Lyplora."

Lyplora smiled and nodded, and waved hello to everyone.

Bombalurina being, well, Bombalurina, thought Lyplora was stuck up because she hadn't spoken, so she asked, "so where are you from?" assuming she had rich humans or something.

"Hold on, I need to interpret for her," said Misto.

"Oh, she's deaf? Ohhhhhhhh," she said, awkardly biting her lip.

"yessssss Bomba, and she doesn't like to be spoken about, but spoken to, like everyone else," taunted Cori.

Bomba looked away and didn't know what to say, she was quite embarrased, so Cassandra spoke up,  
>"well, welcome to the tribe Lyplora, I'm Cassandra by the way." This took everyone by surprise, because Cassandra was usually a very aloof queen.<p>

Misto interpreted and Lyplora signed back, "its nice to meet you Cassandra."

Jemima stepped closer to Lyplora, and said, yelling in her face, "and I'm Jemima."

Lyplora stared at Jemima and signed something and Misto said, "Jemima, Lyplora says that yelling is useless, she can't hear you no matter how loud you yell."

Cassandra, who was being unusually open asked, "can you teach us some sign language?"

"sure, we can start immediately," said Misto.

It was an interesting lesson, Misto taught them greetings and replies in sign language and how to sign the alphabet. Cassandra picked it up a lot faster than the others, and it turned out she and Lyplora had the same taste in art and literature, and they were fast friends. the other queens, however, were still uneasy around Lyplora even after the lesson.

Around lunch time Lyplora suggested that they all go hunting, this caught the other queens, except Cassandra, off guard, but they agreed that lunch sounded good to them.

When they located a barrel where a bunch of mice where hiding, Demeter pulled Lyplora aside and said, "I know you don't understand, but please stay off to the side and wait for us to catch a mouse for you, you can thank us later."

Lyplora tried to push past her but Demeter purposely blocked her when the barrel was overturned and several mice were caught, when Misto suddenly noticed what Demeter was doing.

Cassandra grabbed Demeter and Misto glared at her and asked, "what are you doing?"

Demeter was shocked by their reaction, she had HONESTLY thought she was helping.

"Well, I didn't think she could catch her own"-"and why not?," put in Cassandra, "she is deaf, that is all, its not like she is less intelligent or incapable."

Lyplora signed to Demeter, "Why would you stop me from hunting? I have caught plenty of mice before, why wouldn't I be able to hunt? Shoot, my humans didn't even know I was deaf for several years!" Misto interpreted, and Demeter was speechless. Bombalurina tried to defend her, explaining they thought they were helping, but the twins explained that it's okay to offer help, but never assume she needed it as a matter of course. This led to a lot of arguing ending with Lyplora signing a bunch of swear words,( and no, not by flipping them the bird), and storming off.

Misto and Cassandra followed her, and found her in the area where he and the twins usually practiced magic, curled up in a little ball fighting back tears. Misto tried to approach her, but Cassandra stopped him and walked over to her and put her paw on Lyplora's shoulder, and after a minute helped her to her feet. Lyplora hugged Misto, not letting him go, she had thought she could find acceptance here, she had thought that it would be different then the cats from her old appartment building.

Misto looked at her and mouthed the words, "'I'm sorry," very deliberately because she was holding his paws.  
>she finally let him go and put on a false brave face and signed, "typical, I can deal with it."<p>

Misto signed back, "you shouldn't have to."

They didn't know what to do, so they layed on the ground and tried to catnap, but didn't fall asleep, as if they were all waiting for the same thing but didn't know what. After a while, Lyplora asked a question that had been on her mind. "Cassi, you accepted me almost immediately. You're different than the others, why?"

Misto interpreted and Cassandra replied, "when I was a kitten, I lived with a family that had a natural gas generator, one day something went wrong and it exploded. I wasn't close enough to be seriously hurt, but I was blown back and the noise from the blast damaged my hearing. I was completely deaf for several weeks before my hearing started to return. It was a really difficult time for me, I pretty much had my family push me around thinking I needed them for everything, thinking I didn't understand even what I was doing. The other cats are just ignorant, they don't understand that you can do anything they can. I learned differently because I experienced it."

Mistoffelees interpreted all this and Lyplora turned and looked at her with a new respect. Nothing else was said for a while, but nothing else needed to be said, so they sat with each other until they finally fell asleep and catnapped together until it was almost nightfall.

When they got up, they realized how hungry they were because none of them had eaten, so Misto magicked them to the twins' lair where they found the twins had made a delicious dinner of partridge, apparently they knew a mental trick to attract prey and make it sit right in front of them while they snapped its neck so it would die without fear and it would be instant.

When they all sat down to eat, Lyplora signed sarcastically, "well, this has been an interesting day."


	5. The option to hear

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: William Hoy, a deaf centre-fielder for the Cincinnati Reds, invented the hand signals for strikes and balls in baseball.**

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><p>After dinner, Misto teleported himself back to his den and went to sleep.<br>The next day, the twins sent Mistoffelees the message, "Cassandra came over and is looking at classic literature with Lyplora, you don't have to come over until later." Great, that meant he had nothing to do for most of the day. Misto went outside to hunt for some breakfast, when he suddenly heard a voice calling him from behind a garbage pile.

"Psst, Quaxo, over here." Misto looked around hurriedly and then heard it again,"Quaxo, get over here!"

Misto cautiously crept to the garbage pile and looked around it. Tugger was crouching behind it, maine still pink and with a wild look in his eyes.

"Quaxo, did you have anything to do with this?" he asked and gestured at his mane.

Misto stared at him, he was pathetic. It was wrong to do something like this to him.

"Damn...damn... We shouldn't have done this to you."

Tugger looked up at Misto, confused, "who is we?" he asked.

"Me and Lyplora."

"The deaf chick? How?" asked Tugger.

"Lyplora thought a little revenge for herassing her would be fun, I cast the spell, I'm sorry." And without another word he touched Tugger's mane and said the incantation, turning it back to normal.

Tugger was speechless, so Misto helped him to his feet, when Tugger finally spoke, he said,"you humiliated me, you completely humiliated me."

"Tugger, I have no excuse, you have every right in the world to be mad, please except my apology."

Tugger looked away for a few moments, and then said in his snide voice,"you know, you couldn't tolerate Rumpleteazer's stealing, and you dated for three months. This knew girl comes along, and you hurt me for fun."

"I'm a hypocrit", was all the tux could say.

"Yes you are, so does she like to pull pranks on a regular basis?"

"Yeah, she said its one of her favorite things", said Quaxo,"so do you forgive me?"

"Yeah, just don't let it happen again", said the older tom.

"so how long have you been hiding?"

"Since yesterday, I just shook off Etcetera who thought the pink mane was cute", spat Tugger.

Misto chuckled at this and Tugger couldn't help but laugh also, the whole situation was completely ludicrus, certainly worth a few laughs.

"You see, Lyplora said she hoped the cats she pranks would laugh at themselves", explained Misto, "she doesn't want to hurt anybody."

"Well, what you two did to me is terrible."

"Yeah it was pretty terrible, how about we go and talk to her about it?"

"Uhh, Misto, its kinda awkward after that first encounter."

"Tugger, she is over that, just treat her like anybody else, say what you want to say facing her, and I'll enterpret."

Tugger was still unsure, but Misto eventually talked him into it, so he teleported himself and Tugger to the twins' layer. There they found Lyplora and Cassandra sitting outside discussing the book Jane Eyre. They were doing this by writing to each other on a piece of paper.  
>Misto and Tugger sat down beside the queens and Misto addressed Lyplora, saying as he signed, "Lyplora,<br>Tugger here wants to talk to you."

Tugger sat up and faced the deaf queen, who was completely focused on him now. He knew he had to apologize for treating her badly the other day, but he also wanted an apology from her. Saying he was sorry wasn't really his thing either. Finally he spoke, "Sorry for saying what I did the other day about your deafness..."

Misto enterpreted and Lyplora signed something to Misto, who said, "Lyplora says she forgives you, but wants to know why your mane isn't pink anymore."

Misto then turned to her and explained, "that was my doing Lyplora, I thought Tugger had been punished enough."

Lyplora nodded and then signed something else, Misto saying, "Lyplora says she won't pull anymore really mean pranks on you, at least nothing like that, but you might want to keep an eye out for minor gags."

Lyplora smirked and nodded her head, she obviously had the intention to continue to pull pranks, just less nasty ones.

Cassandra,who had been quiet this whole time asked, "alright, now can we please get back to our discussion about Jane Eyre? Lyplora had just mentioned that the term 'a wife in the attic' came from this book." She wrote this on the paper and Lyplora nodded.

Tugger picked up the book and said, "why would you read something like this? Its just boring human queens talking about getting married and other dull stuff."

Misto actually really liked the book, but Tugger kept trying to crack jokes about how boring the it was. Cassandra got extremely annoyed with him and was about to tell him to go stick his head up a goat when Etcetera came running. At the sight of her Tugger jumped up and ran away and Etcetera chased after him like the crazy obsessed fan that she was.

"At least we don't have to deal with him anymore," sighed Mistoffelees as he heard Cetty yelling something about Tugger's mane.

They sat for several hours reading and discussing Jane Eyre, only stopping to have lunch with the twins, during this time Cassandra learned a lot more sign language so Misto didn't have to enterpret for her as much. Eventually Cassandra had to head home so that left Misto alone with Lyplora and the twins, who were very anxious to get some practice in that day.

"We wanted to do some training with you today, no more putting it off," said the twins in unison.

"What about Lyplora, can she come with us?"

Tanto signed to Lyplora,"wanna come watch us practice magic?"

She signed back, "sure, why not?"

So they headed to the practice area. When they got there, Misto magicked a couple of his spell books there so he could read up on a complex spell. Lyplora was completely fascinated by it all, asking questions about everything they did.

"Lyplora, would you like to help me practice a spell?" signed Misto.

"Sure, what would it involve?"

"I would cast it on you, it would turn you into a top hat and back again."

"Alright Misto."

Misto moved her to an open space and stepped back ten paces, he then nodded to her to signal that he was ready and waved his paws, and said the magic word, "TOPOCEENE`!" and she turned into a top hat right before their eyes.

After a few seconds she turned back into a cat and signed, "okay, that, that was weird."

"What did it feel like to be a hat?" asked Misto.

"I felt the strange urge to sit on someone's head."

"Yup, that's normal."

After a few more practice spells, Lyplora asked if she could read some of Misto's spell books, Misto said yes, so she flipped through them, looking at various spells. Then she came across something that caught her eye, an entry in the spell book. It read, 'For The Deaf, To Give Them The Gift Of Hearing'. She was stunned, she signed to Misto to come over and pointed at it, and asked, "why would anyone make the deaf hear since we're used to being deaf? I can't imagine being a hearing cat, it would be... strange."

Misto shrugged and signed, "Maybe some deaf cats feel differently, I heard some deaf humans get some sort of implant so they can hear."

"Why?"

"Because they feel like it would makes their lives easier I guess."

"Well, that's just not for me."

"I know Lyplora, you are comfortable being deaf, and nobody is going to force you to become hearing. We're going to have to keep this spell a secret from the other cats though."

Lyplora nodded, she knew that if the other cats found out about this spell, they would want to force her to have it done. The thought made her afraid.

As she and Misto discussed this, the twins dissappeard once again, and the sun begun to set.


	6. Dancing and plotting

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: Statistically, deaf people are safer drivers than hearing people, it has to do with less distractions.**

**If somebody ever says they think it's dangerous for a deaf person to drive, tell them to get in their car and go down the street blindfolded. That'll prove just how unimportant hearing is to driving!**

* * *

><p>For the second time, Lyplora and Misto found themselves alone. Lyplora stood up and started scanning the area with her eyes for her cousins. Once she knew they weren't there, she asked Misto, "do they run off and leave you alone often?"<p>

"Only recently," was his reply.

Not knowing what else to do, they both sat and watched the sunset. The sky was an auora of colors, and the lonesomeness of the place they where at made them feel like the only two cats in the world. They sat like this together until the stars started to appear on the dimming horizon, when Lyplora asked Misto a question.

"Misto... you said you like dancing, I never learned how. Could you teach me?"

It was an odd thing for a deaf cat to request, but Misto simply replied, "sure, but we're gonna have to figure out how you can stay in sync with the rhythm." He thought about this for a moment, and then signed, "I have an idea Lyplora, I'll be right back."

He ran off and came back a few minutes later, using his magic to make an old record player follow behind him. He was carrying several records that he showed to her. There were three beatles albums, some Latin American music, some classical music, and the Micheal Jackson album Off the Wall. Misto set up the record player and put on one of the classical music records. He turned the volume way up and took Lyplora's paw, he placed it against the speaker and she felt the vibrations it made. He had her sit like this for a while, allowing her to concentrate on the rhythm and melody of the music by feeling the vibrations of it.

When she told him she was ready to start learning, Misto turned the volume up until she could feel the vibrations of the music without having to keep her paws on the record player.

He signed to her, "alright, so you take my paw, and I hold onto your waist."

She took his paw and they started moving in time to the music together. It was all feeling the music, feeling it to her inner core and moving the way Misto did that taught Lyplora to dance. He showed her how to slow dance and waltz and tango. And he taught her how to dance like a Jellicle under the stars that night

Together they danced until the dawn light lit their faces with it's gentle glow.

When the last song finally ended Lyplora looked at Misto with tears in her eyes and the glow of the sunrise illuminating her face. She signed with her paw, "thank you, for teaching me to dance."

Misto could only smile in reply as he gazed at her, and together they slowly made their way back to the twins' layer.

* * *

><p>With a bored expression the wild looking tom examined the object the henchcat had brought him.<p>

"So this is it? It looks like an ordinary flute to me. Are you sure this is the flute of the great cat warlock Translador?"

The henchcat said with his head bowed in respect and fear, "yes, oh hiddden paw, it will entrance anyone who hears it's music to become completely obedient to whoever plays it."

"Excellent," said Macavity, and with that he begun to play the flute. the music that trailed from it was the most beautiful sound in the world. It was as a siren's song and a lion's roar, a symphony and a cacohpony. The henchcat fell to the ground, in tears, and begun to beg Macavity for orders.

"Please, I will do whatever you say, please? If you give me no orders, I might as well die! I will do whatever you say, gladly."

Macavity stopped playing and smiled, he thought for a moment, and then said, "I want you to go and kill your only friend, your pet parakeet Pheobe. And then I want you to roast her and bring her to me for my dinner."

The henchcat had started working for Macavity as a kitten and had almost completely forgotten who he was. His parakeet was the only creature that would call him by name, to everyone else he was just another number.  
>But he felt as though Macavity had given him new life somehow, just by giving him this order. He no longer cared for his once precious friend, or to earn his freedom or to find his family. All that matter now was that he obeyed.<p>

He got to his feet and bowed low, saying, "I will carry out the task you have ordered."


	7. Admetus

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: Deaf and hard of hearing people prefer to be called deaf or hard of hearing. They usually don't like the label 'hearing impared', because it's degrading and implies that there is something wrong with them. **

**To hearing people it may sound politically correct, but that label focuses on what they can't do and implies that there is a standard, and that is hearing, which they must meet to be whole.**

* * *

><p>Misto got Lyplora back to the twins' lair and then went home himself, both did nothing that day except sleep. The next day, Misto took Lyplora to go meet more kittens seemed to have mixed feelings toward her, but around mid afternoon she and Misto ran into Admetus.<p>

"Hello Misto, so this is the new one eh?" asked Admetus.

Admetus and Lyplora got along perfectly, Admetus was quite a gentletom to those who would actually interact with him. They spent most of the day teaching Admetus sign language, which he became quite good at surprisingly quickly (what they didn't know was that Admetus already spoke seven languages, because he was a fast learner), and when it came to be around dinner time he asked them if they would like to dine with him that evening. They accepted and they all headed towards Admetus's lair. When they got there, Misto was surprised to see that his den was made of an old table top sitting on top of cinder blocks with pieces of scrap metal making up the walls.

"Admetus, how did you make this den?" asked Misto.

Admetus looked at him and said flatly, "Macavity helped me back when he lived at the junkyard, he used his magic to get the table up there, I did the rest."

Misto nodded, amazed that the hidden paw had at one point been a useful member of the tribe, but his amazement at this was nothing compared to the next surprise that awaited them inside.

They walked through a small opening and found themselves in a very large one room den, with pillows at one end for sleeping and candles everywhere to light up the place, an under bed storage container as a table, a small blue ice chest and other boxes serving as drawers, and six kittens running towards them. Wait, kittens? Since when did Admetus have kittens?

"Daddy's home, daddy's home!" squealed a gray queen.

All the kittens gathered around their dad and started to hug and climb on him and pull him every which way.

Misto was completely shocked to find out that Admetus had kittens, Lyplora, on the other hand, having never met Admetus before, wondered what Misto was surprised about.

"Alright kits, that's enough, we have guests tonight and we all need to be on our best behavior," said Admetus with affection in his voice.

The kittens turned to Misto and Lyplora and greeted them with the best manners they had ever seen in kittens so young, each kitten shaking their paws and politely introducing themselves, "hi, I'm Aspasia", said the gray queen, who was the oldest. "I'm Aristotle", said an orange tabby. "I'm Socrates", said a tiny buff tom. "My names Themista," chimed in a calico queen with green eyes, and then two brown marble tabby kittens who were identical except one was male and the other female came up and introduced themselves together.  
>"This is Timycha and I'm Pythagoras," said the tom.<p>

Misto, finally over the initial shock, said, "hello kittens, I'm Mistoffelees, but you can call me Quaxo, and this is Lyplora. Lyplora is deaf and uses sign language, so I'm her enterpreter, do you have any questions?"

None of the kittens spoke but seemed quite interested, all looking at Lyplora with curiosity until their dad said,  
>"alright kits, we've kept our guests standing here long enough, why don't you ask them to sit down and offer them something to drink while I go make dinner."<p>

The kittens led them to the makeshift table and had them sit down, and Socrates and Aristotle scurried off and came back with two mouth wash cups filled with water. The kittens entertained Misto and Lyplora by showing them the ballet moves their dad had taught them, Misto being particularly impressed by the fact that they were quite graceful for there age.

Soon Admetus came back in with a platter with something shaped like a duck but was really spam that had been molded to look like a duck that had been heated over several candles until it became solid and even burned in a few places.

"Yay, we're having mock duck tonight!" cried Themista.

The kittens all got up and ran to the ice chest and pulled out plastic plates that had once been part of a child's tea set. they set one at each place at the table and Admetus set the mock duck in the middle. They all sat down and said grace, and then Admetus started serving Lyplora and Misto, and then the queens and then the toms, and finally he

served himself. Misto didn't know what to say, he knew that this side of the junkyard didn't have as much prey, but eating stolen spam was desparate. He had no idea that Admetus had all these kittens to feed and nobody to help him. Why didn't he ask for help? He knew the answer, the other cats would scatter when they saw him coming, he was usually the topic of a lot of the queens' gossip. Nobody would help him. It was considered the norm for the cats to help find whatever a parent needed, but everyone tried their best not to see Admetus.

During dinner, the kittens asked Lyplora lots of questions, mostly how to say particular things in sign language, being encouraged by both Lyplora and Misto to ask whatever they liked. Admetus gently reminded his kits about table manners throughout the meal, and was glad to see his children treating the differently abled so well.

When they had finished with the mock duck and the kittens were about to clear the table, Misto winked to Lyplora and asked,"wait, aren't you forgetting something?"

The kittens looked at each other and Timycha asked, "forgetting what, Mr Quaxo?"

"why, desert. Don't you eat desert?" asked Misto, with mock curiosity that the kittens didn't catch onto.

Socrates looked up at Misto with his paws behind his back and meekly said, "we don't get desert here."

Misto looked at him with fake surprise and said, "really? because I could have sworn I saw a big bowl of vanilla ice cream right outside... I'll go check and see..."

Misto stepped outside and starting saying very loudly, "it sure looks like a bowl of vanilla ice cream, and its heavy like a bowl of vanilla ice cream..."

And Misto walked in the door carrying a large bowl of, what else? Vanilla ice cream.

At this the kittens all cheered, they could barely hold themselves back while the ice cream was being scooped, and once everyone had been served, all manners had been thrown to the wind. When they were done, instead of getting sugar rushes, the kittens begun to yawn and feel sleepy, so sleepy in fact, that they didn't notice Misto whispering to their dad that it was enchanted ice cream.

As Admetus was tucking them into their nests of pillows and old blankets, he explained to Misto and Lyplora, "I was mated to their mother who lived with a human family. I lived in the junkyard because this is my home, and she understood, and she knew I was Loyal despite not living with her. Aspasia was from our first litter, the others from that litter were all sent to wonderful homes... Aristotle, Themista, Pythagoras, and Timycha were our second litter, that time the humans didn't give any away. And Socrates was the only survivor from his litter, the rest were still born..." Admetus tried to sign all this, but Misto still had to interpret in some bits.

Lyplora nodded and gestured for him to keep going.

"My mate died three months ago, when her humans house caught on fire," Admetus continued, covering his face with his paws as he spoke, "I tried to rescue her, but she was trapped and insisted I take the kittens, the humans didn't get out alive either." Misto interpreted for Lyplora, greatly moved, she approached him and put a comforting paw on his shoulder, and then Misto did the same. They all watched the kittens sleep for a little while, peacefully dreaming and occasionally twitching. After a while Admetus turned to them and hugged them both, they were the first in the tribe besides Old Deuteronomy to meet the kittens.

"You know, I do my best with them, they are so well educated and talented, but it is hard for them sometimes. It was extremely difficult for them to learn to cope since their mother died, and what you did for them this evening, it may seem like a small thing, but it made them so happy. Thank you so much my dear friends."

Soon Misto and Lyplora left Admetus' lair, and slowly made their ways back to their own lairs, through the silent junkyard.


	8. Poker

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: John Gregg, the man who invented shorthand writing, was deaf. **

* * *

><p><strong>all dialogue is in sign language<strong>

It was a week later, it was raining, and Misto and Lyplora were inside the twins' lair playing poker. The twins sat, meditating in the corner, practicing blanking out everything that went on around them.

"So, did you bring that box of cat chow to Admetus yesterday?" asked Misto.

"Yeah, he was really happy, what with Autumn coming, he said he would put it in his winter storage," she signed, with a slight expression of concern on her face.

"What's wrong Lyplora?" asked Misto, having to take his cards with one paw as he signed this. Using sign language and playing poker at the same time is difficult.

Lyplora looked up from her deck and signed, "I was always an indoor kittie, I don't know how to survive during the winter."

"What we usually do is have whoever has owners nab food from their pantries to share with everyone, which reminds me, I've only been home once since you've come here, I'm going to have to introduce you to my owners... Oh, and we catch lots of mice and rats as well as raid the local dumpsters for food that's still good and that goes into a collection to be shared with everyone, and we also all store up food for ourselves..."

Lyplora stared at him wide eyed, did he seriously just tell her he wanted her to meet his owners? Okay, that was a serious move for cats that had owners, she wasn't even paying attention to what he was trying to tell her, she just contemplated what she like about him.

Well, she loved how he was a bit of a rascal but still awkward and shy sometimes, not liking too much attention. Yet competent in his magic and his dancing. He wasn't afraid to express emotion, and she liked the fact that he didn't mind being sorta unconventional.

As she was contemplating these things, she realized he was still signing and started nodding as he finished, "and my sister victoria stays with our owners all winter of course."

"Why does she stay with them?"

"Oh, they treat her as a Christmas kittie, they make her wear jingle bells on her collar and Christmassy things until March."

"Do you visit them during the winter?"

"Yeah, constantly, my owners are great people, and I love my sister and couldn't stand to not see her all winter."

After they looked at their cards one last time, Misto signed, "okay, are you ready to reveal what you've got?"

Lyplora raised an eyebrow and nodded, so Misto laid down his cards.

"two pair? Misto, I'm sorry to tell you that I win again. FULL HOUSE!" And with that she laid down her cards for him to see.

She then proceeded to pull the poker chips towards her end of the table and she signed with a big smile on her face, "ah, now that's the shit."

"How much do I owe you?" asked Misto.

"If my calculations are correct, you owe me thirty thousand pounds."

"You have got to be kidding me, there is no way we've played that much poker today."

"Yes we have, now don't be such a spoil sport and deal me in, for all you know you could win it all back."

"Fine," replied the magician, and he begun to shuffle the cards like a pro.

"So, when do you think I could meet your humans?" asked Lyplora.

Misto put down the deck of cards and signed, "We could visit them tonight, if you want." He then picked up the deck and started to deal.

"I can't wait, now time to win again," and she swiftly picked up her cards and begun rearranging them.

Misto picked up his cards, with a mock smile on his face, the gambling was just pretend, he didn't owe her any money, what would a cat do with it? He was slightly bothered that he kept losing, but he was able to spend time with her, and that was enough for him.

Misto watched Lyplora rearranging her cards, she was literally the most beautiful queen he had ever seen. He thought over what he liked about her, since enviting her to meet his humans was a serious move and they had been taking it slow, never even getting to first base yet. She was witty and loved to joke but also had sophisticated taste in art and literature, she was sarcastic and catty but she was also sensitive and had a kind and gentle soul. He could not have found better, he thought. And he was right.

After watching her for a minute, Lyplora begun to notice and asked, "Misto... your cards?"

Misto realized they were still playing and started going through his deck, before lowering them to ask, "hey, did you remember to send that apology note and dried rat tales to Demeter?"

Lyplora looked sarcastic and signed, "yes, yes I did, although I don't get why you make me send those things to cats that I prank. I mean, it was just a small gag, it wasn't even worth noting."

"Lyplora, you put glue on Demeter's pillow, she walked around for half the day with a pillow stuck to her ass, and I had to get it off. It was the most awkward spell I ever had to cast!"

"Picky picky," she signed, and then put down three cards and picked up three more from the deck.

Misto put down two cards, got two more, and then they placed their bets.

They laid their cards down, and what do you know, Lyplora won. Again.

All Misto could do is smack his face, he did not understand how she kept winning. He was so relieved when she asked him, "want to take a break for lunch?"

"Sure, what do you have in mind?"

"How does mouse cakes and tea sound to you?"

"Sounds nice but where did you get the tea?"

"You know how Skimble's humans at the railway station buy and brew him his own tea? Well, Skimble gave me some as a welcome gift."

"That was nice of him."

"It was, wasn't it?" And with that she got up and went to go get their lunch. She came back a few minutes later balancing one custard cup with tea on her head and the other on her right paw. With her left paw she clutched two large mouse cakes close to her chest. Misto jumped up to help her and took the cup on her head right when it was about to fall off. He placed it on the crate, she set the other cup and the mouse cakes on the crate as well, and they both sat down to eat.

"Wow, what's in these mouse cakes?" asked Misto as he dunked his into his tea.

"I got some extra ingredients from the humans outside the junkyard. Some human was sitting on a park bunch and was eating a very large sandwitch and some of the tuna fell out and I rescued it."

"Brilliant, you are a marvelous cook," signed Misto.

"Misto, don't sign with your mouth full," signed Lyplora, with a faked serious expression.

Misto did a fake sad face and slowly took another bite, Lyplora barrying her face in her paws, smiling exasperatedly.

"So, when would you like to head over to my humans' house? Its not that far."

"How about around four, that way we can be there right before dinner."

"Fine with me."

Lyplora took a sip of her tea and then asked, "so is Victoria coming with us?"

"Yes, hopefully this will be an opportunity for you to get to know each other."

"yeah...oh, I think I've found my own place to stay here in the junkyard. Cassandra and I were out walking yesterday, and I stumbled upon this old industrial sized dish washer that looked perfect. We went and asked Munkustrap and he said it was unoccupied so I could have it. Isn't that great?"

"That old dish washer? Its close to the place were I practice magic, nice, isolated location."

"Tell me about it, I won't have to deal with running into cats who will try to force me and push me around because you and my cousins will be the only one's around most of the time. Oh, did I tell you what happened to me the other day while I was waiting for Cassandra?"

"No, you didn't, did you pull some horrible joke on some poor, unsuspecting cat?"

"No," she explained, "you see, I was waiting for her and those two thieves Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer came up and hadn't met me yet, right? Well, they kept on yammering at me and I could tell they were frustrated because I wasn't replying, and so finally Mungojerrie came up and crabbed my head and he yelled in my ear which hurt because of the air moving so fast, it was like he had just blown right into it. So I pushed him back and clawed him and his sister started to try to force me to go with them, and then Cassandra arrived. She asked them what they were doing and made them leave and then told me that they were going to take me to Old D so he could deal with me. Hilarious, right?"

"oh yeah, that is hilarious. Don't worry about those two, Mungojerrie is just full of shit and Teazer probably just wanted to help."

"Yeah, well, I got Jerrie pretty good, so they'll know to leave me alone."

Misto looked away for a moment and then asked,"do you want them to leave you alone? Shun you? Ignore you? Or do you want them to accept you?"

"...In all honesty, I don't know what I want. I know I really want to make friends with everyone, but anybody who acts like that, well, I don't want them to shun me either, I just want them to treat me normally."

"I know, you do need to remember that many of them have deep prejudices and will take time to warm up to you."

"Yeah, it makes me think that, to be treated normal by everyone, that hearing spell would be worth it."

"I don't think so, you shouldn't have to change for them."

"I know... and I'm not going to, that spell is still a secret, right?"

"Of course it is, I would never tell the other cats about it."

"Thanks Misto, you're wonderful."

They finished their mouse cakes and tea and Misto delt them another hand of cards.

"Okay, so this game will determine the champion, after this we play Monopoly," signed Lyplora.

"Alright, and after a few games of that, we'll head over to my humans' house, right?"

"Yup, oh, how's that new spell you're practicing turning out?"

"Turning rocks into turtles? Its not going very well, I keep turning them into tortoises."

"Oh, the horror, the horror," signed Lyplora, over exaggerating concern.

"Its important to me that I get it right, I have to master this chapter in the spell book before I can turn to the next one. Damn enchanted book, won't let me move ahead until I get it all perfect."

Lyplora nodded and signed, "I understand, its frustrating."

"Very, but don't worry about it, I'm sure I'll get it right soon."

"Of course you will, you're brilliant."

"Not really," and then trying to change the topic, Misto asked,"so Tugger's been flirting with you like the other queens?"

"Yeah, he's awfully annoying and disoblidging, isn't he?"

"yeah, its a matter of habit."

Lyplora looked at her deck and smiled and signed, "I'm putting everything on the table for this one", and she put all her winnings up and showed her cards."Three if a kind, in kings."

Misto raised an eye brow and signed, "Lyplora, I really hate to disappoint you, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to. I present you with a royal flush," and he showed her his cards.


	9. The owners

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: In 1964, deaf physicist Robert Weitbrecht invented the teletypewriter (TTY), the deaf equivalent of a telephone. It's connected to the phoneline, has a keyboard you type on, and on the other side, the message is printed like a fax machine. Today there are more advanced models, as well as relay calls and video phones.**

* * *

><p>It was very cold and wet as Misto, Lyplora, and Victoria made their way through the streets of London, trying to get to the loft where Misto and Victoria's humans lived. Misto had originally wanted to teleport them there, but despite the cold Lyplora asked if they could walk because she had never seen that part of London before. Unfortunately, there were so many people crowding the sidewalks and cars crowding the streets they found themselves too busy dodging feet to admire any scenery. When they finally got to the apartment building, they were cold and wet and tired. As they made their way through the apartment complex, Lyplora seemed excited but Victoria, despite being tired, did everything she could to not look at Lyplora. Finally they reached a door that had a cat door in it and they went through it into the apartment.<p>

Lyplora looked around curiously at the nice furniture and the different gizmos and the humans doing whatever it is that humans do. Mistoffelees finally got one of the human's attention by weaving in and out between it's legs and purring happily; this particular human happened to be the teenaged daughter, still wearing her prep school uniform.

"Hey mom, looks like Dark Moon and Snow Shine are back," said the girl, cell phone still glued to her head as she bent down to pet Misto and suddenly noticed Lyplora.

"Um mom, do any of our neighbors have a cat that they let roam loose? There's one here that isn't ours," she said, hanging up on her friend.

The mom finally looked up from her lap top and noticed the new cat as well, "I don't recognize it honey, is there a tag?"

The teenager reached out to the strange cat who shyly let the girl pet her ears and finally got close enough to her allow to look at the scratched up tag attached to her collar.

"everything on the tag has been scratched out, I can't even tell what's supposed to be on here," said the girl.

The mother sighed at this, she hated it when people abondoned their pets.

The girl, who's name was Jeniffer, petted the cat affectionately as her mother walked into the kitchen to think about what to do, when suddenly she was struck with an idea.

"Hey mom," she called, "you know how my birthday is in a few weeks?"

"Yeah, I know honey."

"Well, mom, since I've always been so good about feeding and cleaning up after Dark Moon and Snow Shine, could I have this one for my birthday?"

The mother walked back into the living/dinning room and looked at her daughter. Jeniffer didn't know this, but her mother had once fostered kittens for rescue groups and wouldn't turn away a homeless animal, but she still intended to exert some parental authority.

"Honey, we can't keep every stray that we come across."

"Mom, this one came right in the front door, she is probably friends with our others."

She and her mother discussed it for a while, the mother pretending the whole time that a new cat was a horrible idea. It wasn't until Jeniffer agreed to pay for the rabees shots and all the cat stuff that she said yes. During all this time, Misto and Lyplora had dried themselves off and were lying on the couch waiting to find out the verdict, when suddenly Lyplora was scooped up by Jeniffer who held her close and started telling her how she was her's from that time on. Of course, Lyplora couldn't hear any of the girls chatter, but was curious as to how long it would take them to find out she couldn't hear.

Jeniffer opened a can of tuna for Lyplora and let her eat on the counter, much to her mother's dismay, and then replaced the old collar around her neck with a black spiky one.

"Jen," said the mother, "you don't even know if its a male or a female cat."

"Alright I'll check," said Jeniffer, picking her up and checking, much to Lyplora's embarrassment.

"Its a girl, mom, but I really like the spiked collar on her."

The mother rolled her eyes, knowing her daughter wasn't much of a girlie girl.

The three cats spent the next several hours being thoroughly spoiled by Jeniffer, being fed tuna and getting brushed and baby talked to. Lyplora could tell that the baby talk annoyed the others; she did secretly enjoy not having to endure hearing it. What they enjoyed the most though, was having Jeniffer play with them with a cat teaser. Victoria and Lyplora really got into it, even teaming up on Misto, much to his surprise. Lyplora was even given a name by the humans, they decided to call her Forest.

It was really late when everyone got to sleep that night, Victoria sleeping in the mother's room, Misto taking his usuall place on the couch, and Lyplora on the foot of Jeniffer's bed.

When she knew the human girl was asleep, she crept to the window to look out at the stars now that the sky was clear. She sat on the window sill, and felt the new collar around her neck. It felt odd, having a new one on.

Suddenly, Misto jumped up on the window sill and sat down close to her. "So, how do you like the humans?" he asked.

"They're nice, I just hope they won't dump me like my last ones."

"Lyplora, they won't do that to you, I promise."

Lyplora looked worried, and tried to change the topic, "so, what is it they've decided to call me?"

"Forest, which, I must admit, is beautiful."

Lyplora smiled and signed, "thanks, what do they call you?"

"Do you really want to know?" Asked Misto.

Lyplora nodded and Misto sighed and signed, "the call me Dark Moon."

Lyplora tried to muffle a giggle as Misto shook his head and signed, "its not funny, its just sorta unusual for a family name."

They both turned towards the window and looked out at the night sky, they could clearly see the full moon over the tops of the other apartment buildings.

Misto got a little closer to Lyplora, who noticed this and smirked. Finally, Misto turned to face Lyplora and signed, "the reason why I came in here is because I wanted to ask you something."

Lyplora looked at him curiously, "So what is it?" she asked.

"Well, the Jellicle ball is going to be late this year, but I was wondering if you'd like to come with me. Like a real date."

Lyplora smiled and asked, "so we can't date until then?"

It took Misto a moment to realize what she meant and found himself tongue tied (err, finger tied). But before he could reply Lyplora grabbed him and pulled him into a kiss. It was a short kiss, but they felt sparks fly and when their mouths parted Misto looked at Lyplora stunned. He signed with shaking paws,"...that was."

Lyplora raised an eyebrow and then smiled at him, knowing he had enjoyed that kiss. Misto finally getting over the shock of what had just happened signed hurriedly, "so, goodnight."

He then hurried out of the room and ran back into the living room and jumped back on the couch.

"Wow, that was amazing," he thought, as he layed down.

Lyplora got back on the bed, still smirking a little, glad she had made the first move.


	10. You don't understand her language

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: Deaf people have keener senses of sight, taste, smell, and touch. The same way a blind person makes up for lack of sight by developing a better hearing and other senses.**

* * *

><p>The next morning while they were eating breakfast, Misto tried everything not to look at Lyplora; anybody could tell he was being shy. As they ate, Lyplora kept throwing looks to Victoria to hint that she was serious about him. Victoria, still not feeling very comfortable around Lyplora, simply grinned awkwardly in response.<p>

After breakfast and the humans left to do whatever it is humans do during the day, Misto and Lyplora sat down on the window sill to chat.

"So, about the Jellicle ball, is everything planned ahead of time, or are the songs done at random?" Lyplora asked, curiously.

"We do plan what songs we are going to do ahead of time, but it depends on when the cats the songs are about actually show up. We do try to plan when to do certain songs, but some things just happen at random."

Lyplora thought about this, she had an idea for how she could participate in the ball, she decided to tell Misto later though.

"Why do you ask?"

Lyplora signed nonchalantly as she thought, "just wondering."

"So do you want to look around the building?" asked Misto.

Lyplora bit her lip for a second and then signed, "Well, can we discuss last night first?"

Misto tried to look away and then signed awkwardly, "what do we need to discuss?"

"Well, its just... I like you Misto, and I want to know if this is serious?"

Misto looked her straight in the face, finally. "Of course this is serious Lyplora, I mean, I brought you to meet the owners! I do like you, I was just trying to take it slow. I really do like you," he signed, with an honest look on his face.

Lyplora smiled brightly at this, he didn't have to keep going, just knowing he liked her was enough for now.

Misto then took Lyplora on a tour of the building, they spent time watching people come and go in the lobby, played around on the elevators, and even visited the human neighbors who were allergic to cats.

When they finally got back to Misto's apartment, Lyplora was tired from all the fun they had had and decided to go lie in the sunbeam coming in the window, leaving Misto alone with his sister.

"So what do you think of Lyplora?" asked Misto.

"She's okay, I guess," said Victoria, not knowing how to properly say how she felt .

"Did you have fun playing with her last night with the cat teazer?" he asked.

"Yeah, that was nice. She's just...Misto, when we're doing something and we don't have to talk, it's fine. But when you two start your signing thing and I can't tell what's going on, it's kinda uncomfortable for me."

Misto shrugged and said, "well then, learn to sign."

Victoria shook her head and said, "you don't get what I mean, you see, I just don't comprehend how that even qualifies as a language. I'ts just, I don't see how it has meaning or if Lyplora even knows what's happening most of the time."

Misto clenched his teeth at this, how could she think this way? "Victoria, Lyplora is not stupid, she can lip read so she can pick up on what you're saying, and sign language is actually a language, she can communicate. She just communicates differently. She knows what's happening as much as anybody else, she is perfectly aware of her surroundings, only minus the sound."

"Well, it's just so hard on the rest of us, having to learn her language."

"Why don't you go talk to her right now? Why don't you go get to know her and she will show you how intelligent she is?" he asked. "Go talk to her right now, you can learn to understand each other. Sign language isn't that hard to figure out, and I've taught you some signs," said Misto, pushing her over to where Lyplora was sitting.

He stepped away and left Victoria alone with Lyplora, who turned around and smiled to her. Victoria, not knowing what to do, cautiously approached the window sill and jumped up.

"So, how are you?" Victoria asked, not knowing what else to say.

Lyplora did the sign for 'fine', touching her chest with her thumb with the rest of her hand open.

Victoria assumed this meant okay, or something to that affect, and shyly continued.

"So, what do you like to do for fun?"

Lyplora flattened her left paw and pointed at it with two fingers, moving them back and fourth once for, "reading."

Victoria figured this meant reading, so she kept going.

"Is it going okay, with my brother?"

Lyplora signed, very slowly and elaborately for Victoria, "everything is going great."

Victoria stood there awkwardly, trying to figure out what Lyplora meant.

"Right, so... how do you like the junkyard?"

"It's nice, I've met a few wonderful cats," signed Lyplora.

Victoria only recognized the sign for cats, so she assumed Lyplora was completely lost.

"Yes, there are other cats in the junkyard," she said, unsure of how to handle this.

Lyplora just shook her head, this was typical.

"So, what other cats do you know?"

Lyplora begun to do the name signs for Cassandra and Admetus, but Victoria just got even more confused.

"Alright...so nice talking to you," she stammered, as she turned around to leave.

Lyplora just smirked and signed, "piss off."

Victoria noticed this, and asked,"does that mean goodbye?"

Lyplora nodded, doing the sign again, which Victoria copied repeatedly before she jumped down off the window sill and went to talk to Misto.

Mistoffelees grinned as his sister approached him, wondering how it had went.

"So, did you understand any of the signs I had taught you?" he asked.

"I couldn't pick up on very much, like I said, this is difficult. I noticed she didn't understand much of what I was asking her, she just doens't understand Misto."

Misto shook his head, "You just don't understand her language, that is all."

"But you don't get it," said Victoria,"the entire junkyard isn't going to learn sign language. Its not that simple, haven't you thought about that?"

"Yes I have, both me and Lyplora discussed it. And you know what? We're aware that not everyone is going to learn to sign, but what's more important right now is that everyone accepts her."

"Well, seeing how it's so hard to understand her, it's really hard to be accepting."

Misto let out a sigh, his sister just wasn't getting it. "Victoria, haven't you considered how hard it is for her, lip reading isn't easy, and... think about Grizabella. That is the kind of rejection that Lyplora faces daily from most of the junkyard."

Victoria considered this, she had been the first to accept back Grizabella, Lyplora was young and beautiful, but still an outcast. Victoria finally made the connection.

"It's really like that, isn't it?" she asked, cautiously.

"You get it?"

"Yeah, I think I do," she said, slowly.

The rest of the week at the humans' place slowly improved, Victoria learning more sign language and how to generally pick up on what Lyplora meant. The humans were wonderful, Jeniffer spoiling them rotten on tuna and playing with them constantly with the cat teazer. At night, Misto and Lyplora would sit up in the window sill and look out at the city, having a conversation or just enjoying each other's company. When it was finally time to leave, Misto woke up early and went through the pantry and magicked a few cans of cat food back to the junkyard. After checking to make sure there was nothing else they needed and the coast was clear, the three cats snuck out of the loft and headed back to the junkyard.


	11. Macavity's hideout

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: Gallaudet University was the first college for the advanced education of the deaf and is the only school in the world in which all programs and services are specifically designed for deaf and hard of hearing students. The university was named after deaf educater Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet.**

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><p>Ally cats from all over the outskirts of London walked past empty warehouses, longing to find their new master. After hours of searching, they finally found the right building and slowly made their way towards an opening where a hench cat stood guard.<p>

"Alright, just go inside single file and you will be given a job just like you want, just stand and wait to be sorted. And no pushing!" he said, seeing the looks of desparation in their eyes.

The cats made their way inside and lined up for inspection, each waiting to be assigned to a position. They waited tensely for a few minutes when suddenly Macavity appeared out of nowhere and their eyes lit up at the sight of the one they were to obey.

The ginger cat looked over each one of them with a keen eye, knowing just what he was looking for. As macavity eyed the new cats, he noticed some of them tremble with anticipation at the prospect of being given orders.

Macavity approached a tall, strong looking tom standing in the front.

"Do you pledge your absolute loyalty to the Neplolean of Crime?" he asked

"I do sir," said the cat with delight.

Macavit nodded and said, "go down that hall to the right, it leads to the barracks for our fighters, you'll do well."

The cat walked towards the door with pride in his step, jubilated to have been given a job by the player of the flute.

Macavity glanced at some of the cats off to the side, realizing they were pathetic strays. "You lot, off to that room over there, they'll see what you're good for."

The group he pointed at hurriedly went, yearning to please their new master.

The hidden paw made his way back and fourth, purposely looking unimpressed as he inspected the aspiring cats. He smiled as he eyed the cats standing there waiting for orders, taking his time and keeping them in suspense, knowing that every moment they spent waiting was complete psychological torture.

"Alright, I want all the rest of the toms to go through that door to receive orders, I want the queens to come to the front."

The toms begun to file out as the queens came forward to present themselves to Macavity, who bit his lip as he looked at them. He noticed a young calico queen who was obviously starving and was filthy from head to tail. She was young, she had only recently had her first heat, she was barely as old as Victoria. He motioned with his paw for her to step forward which she did as the other queens stared in jealousy.

The queen kept her head down in reverence but Macavity reached out and put his paw under her chin, bringing her face up to his. "My dear, you don't need to be afraid, for you are a gem among rough gravel," he said in a whisper so only she could hear.

"I am not worthy, a queen like me, but whatever pleases you-" Macavity gently pressed his paw over her mouth.

"Broonet, get in here," he called.

A young servant queen came forward and bowed to the Hidden Paw.

"Take this beautiful creature and pamper her and clean her and feed her whatever she likes. Get her the prettiest collar we have and put flowers in her fur. In two or three weeks, once she's filled out a little, she will outshine every cat in England!"

The servant cat bowed once again and turned to take her away. As the stunned queen turned to follow her, Macavity reached out with his paw and brought it slowly down the small of her back.

When they had left the room, Macavity got back to sorting out the queens. He walked back and fourth and smirked as he thought about the ignorance written on the face of the queen he had just picked, she barely had any idea of what he would do to her, he liked that a lot. As he made his way back to the front of the line, he noticed a brown and white queen who looked like a hooker, he could see it in her eyes.

He motioned for her to come forward and she walked up to him with a look of pride, proud she could serve the Hidden Paw. Macavity ran his paws down her body and pulled her closer to himself and begun nibbling her neck. The queen let out a loud sigh as she turned her head and leaned into him. Macavity was about to run his paws over her ass when one of his henchcats came in.

"Um, Macavity, I have the information you wanted on-" the cat stopped when he saw Macavity turn his head suddenly, his eyes burning in anger. The henchcat was speechless and begun to stutter but Macavity said, "just say whatever it is, but only if it's important."

The henchcat nodded and continued, "We found the scroll written about the flute of Translador, just as you requested."

"Well, what does it say about how the flute affects magical cats?" he asked, wanting to get the information as quickly as possible so he could get back to what he was doing.

"Aaaacccording to this text, it will only affect cats with magical properties during the Jellicle moon."

Macavity nodded and said, "alright, then we attack the junkyard during the Jellicle ball. How many magical cats live there again?"

"According to our sources, there are only four: Old Dueteronomy, Mistoffelees, Coricopat, and Tantomile," said the henchcat, as the queens looked at him angrily.

"Alright, now get out," he snapped, and the henchcat ran out of the room.

Macavity then turned back to the queen and said to her in a deep voice, "go up those stairs and go down that hall to my chambers and wait, and bring a friend."

The queen turned to the group and pointed at one that could have passed as her sister and motioned for her to follow and they both strutted up the stairs.

"Even the magicians won't be able to stop me, even they will be entranced and will have to do as I say, and they will love it," he thought to himself, as he got back to inspecting the queens.


	12. determined

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was co-founded the first institution for the education for the deaf in North America. After learning French Sign Language in Paris, Gallaudet and Lauent Clerc, a deaf graduate from a French university, co-founded the first deaf school in the United States. American Sign Language is a mixture of French Sign Langauge brought back from France by Gallaudet and Clerc, and the signs which the students at this school made up themselves. Evolving over time into American Sign Language.**

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><p>Lyplora read the words to the healing spell very carefully, mouthing the words and practicing the hand movements that went with it. This was a very intricate spell, it was meant to start a cats heart again if they died. She practiced opening and closing her paws and moving them back and fourth like a heart beating, contrentrating on the idea of guiding a heart to beat again.<p>

Suddenly, she noticed something moving in the corner of her eye and she turned to check on the kittens sleeping in the nest. She closed the book and got up and walked to the nest only to see that it was just Socrates lying on his back and pawing at the air in his sleep.

She smiled at the sight, they were all so precious sleeping together in a little pile, she hoped to have kittens of her own one day, but for now, sitting for Admetus was the next best thing.

It took her a few minutes to tear her eyes off the little fur balls and finally get back to her book. Sitting down and trying to find her place, she felt gratefull that the kittens were so good about going to bed without complaining.

When she found her place, she got back to what felt like a vain attempt to practice something she would never be able to do. She practiced mouthing the words, wishing she could say them and perform the act the spell was meant for, wishing she could be a healer.

_"Why did I ever ask Misto if I could borrow his book, I'm not a healer, I'm just wasting time,"_ she thought to herself. _"I should have brought 'Black Beauty' or 'War and Peace', at least reading one of those would make sense."_

She closed the book and picked up the note book she had brought. She flipped through the pages examining each of her poems, wondering which one she could recite at the Jellicle Ball. 'The Hunter and the Unicorn,' no, maybe some of her haikus... no. As she looked through the book, nothing seemed right, finally, she noticed one that she had written earlier that week.

We Live, We Die:

We survive, we thrive, we live, we die.  
>We stay on this little rock in the sea<br>of existence, before we pass on.

We begin, we finish; we hear and  
>sea but a fraction of what we pass on our way,<br>and comprehend even less.

Dreaming and breathing,  
>searching and finding,<br>living and dying.

Inoccent and enlightened,  
>hopeful and frightened,<br>curious but aloof, we all wander.

Utopia and prison, trapped yet free,  
>that is how we all live.<p>

Some things must change,  
>others will never change,<br>who can decipher?

Finding the beautiful, finding the ugly,  
>the physical and existential, the absolutes and the symbolic,<br>we can't even see the difference sometimes.

We survive, we thrive,  
>we live, we die.<p>

The answer again was no, but not because it wasn't good. It was because she didn't want them to think she was being pretentious.

She continued to search, until she noticed an unusual entry. It was a poem she had written back when she had been engaged. It was one of the few poems of her's she had memorized and had only recently jotted down in her new note book. Maybe this one, but she wasn't sure, some cats might not get what it meant.

She read the poem repeatedly, trying to figure out what some of it meant herself, when suddenly Admetus walked in, carrying a chinese takeout box.

She looked up and smiled at him, closing her notebook and setting it aside. "How was your evening out?" she asked.

"It was nice, I went for a walk in the city and some human chunked this box of shrimp and rice at me."

Lyplora put a paw to her mouth to stiffle a giggle, that human had no idea how much he had helped Admetus.

"Did the kittens behave while I was gone?" he asked, looking over to the nest of sleeping kits.

Lyplora nodded and signed, "they always behave perfectly, you don't need to worry."

Admetus sighed out of relief and signed, "I'm just afraid of losing my kitten sitters and not being able to take these nights out to relax and gather food."

Lyplora waved her paw at this and signed, "don't worry, me and Cassandra love watching the kittens, we're glad we can help you."

"You've made it a lot easier for me, especially by getting Cassandra to help out when you and Misto can't, it's hard sometimes raising this many kits myself, you've really helped me out." He signed all this with an earnest look on his face, and then pulled a grin and opened the chinese takeout box.

"Have one," he signed, offering her a shrimp, which she accepted.

After assuring Admetus several more times that everything was alright and nothing had happened while he was out, Lyplora gathered up her things and headed back to her lair.

When she got there, she went straight inside and laid down and started looking through her poems again. She thought about the one she had written for her fiance, and then drifted to thinking of the day he had died. The traffic and the people going by as if they didn't even see, and there in the middle of the street was a broken and bleeding body.

"If anything like that ever happens again, if I ever have to lose someone I love..." she thought this and then realized something.

She opened the healing book and went back to the spell she was studying.

_"I have to learn how to do this, so what happened before won't happen again. I didn't know how to heal last time, but if anything ever happens to any of the cats I care about, I'll know what to do this time."_


	13. The birthday party

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: 72% of hearing families who have a deaf child will not use sign language with their child. (Gallaudet Research Institute 2002) In these cases, the child may feel isolated within his/her own family, only being able to communicate effectively with other deaf kids or interpreters.**

**One of the number one reasons for parents refusing to use sign language with their deaf child is that 'it makes them uncomfortable.'**

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><p>She had spent weeks practicing, memorizing hand movements and learning how to mouth the words to the spells. It was long and tedius, she would practice intensively until her jaw hurt. There hadn't been any progress, but she felt an unexplained force that drove her on, as if she already knew this.<p>

It was early evening, and she was learning how to close wounds, at the brink of tears because nothing was happening. Suddenly, she felt a tingling in her paws, and for a moment they moved by themselves along with the spells commands, it was going to work, all her hard work was finally going to pay off.

"Lyplora, it's time to leave, we don't want to be late for Demeter's birthday party," signed Misto as he entered the dishwasher lair and came into her line of sight.

At the sight of him and his question her concentration was broken, no use in trying again.

She put the book of healing under her pillow and nodded her head as she got up, "yeah, I'm ready," she signed.

"Alright, lets go," signed Misto as he took her paw and they headed out the door.

They walked into the main clearing which was surrounded by paper lanterns, and the atmosphere was set by the Latin American music playing on the old record player.

As they walked onto the scene a lot of the cats looked up and then pretended not to see them, some walking away, trying to seem inconspicuous.

Lyplora let out a sarcastic little huff and rolled her eyes as she saw this, although not all of them reacted this way, some of them weren't from the junkyard and didn't know her.

Once they were in the center of the clearing, Misto turned to Lyplora and asked her, "want me to get us some punch?"

"Okay," she answered, so he left her while he went to find punch.

She started moving a little bit to the music, it had a really strong rhythm that was easy for her to pick up on. She started stepping in time to it, when a brown tom approached her from behind.

"Would you like to dance?" he asked, but she didn't turn around or notice him. He assumed she was ignoring him, he didn't like that, he was a very cocky tom.

"Hey, I'm talking to you," her said getting frustrated.

Finally she turned around and looked up at him, slightly startled because she didn't know he was standing right there.

"What are you, deaf?" he said angrily.

Lyplora knew what he said, she felt a twinge of anger and narrowed her eyes as she made a sideways first, moving it like she was knocking on a door and mouthed the word yes.

"Wait, what? You're actually deaf?" he asked, wide eyed.

Again, she signed, "yes," nodding and mouthing the word more deliberately this time, she hated having to repeat herself.

"Okay, ummm... doooo youuuuu unnnderstandddd meeee," he said, talking very slowly.

"That doesn't help, just leave me the hell alone," she signed, wanting him to leave.

He was completely lost, but luckily Mistoffelees came back just then, carrying two cups.

"What's going on?" he asked signing with his free paw as he handed her a cup.

Lyplora turned to him, "this tom won't leave me alone."

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it," signed Misto, but the tom had already slipped away, feeling very awkward.

"At least that's taken care of," signed Lyplora, shaking her head.

"Come on, I saw Demeter by the buffet, we can bring her our gifts," and with that, he magicked the two packages into their paws from his lair.

They walked up to Demeter, presents in hand. Demeter accepted them graciously but seemed quite shy taking the one Lyplora gave to her, as if afraid the deaf queen wouldn't understand why she was taking it.

"Thank you," said Demeter, as she handed them to Munkustrap who put them with the others.

Lyplora nodded and then signed, "happy birthday," Misto enterpreting as she told her this.

"Oh, thank you Lyplora," said Demeter, as if shocked that she understood what was going on. She felt extremely awkward, she really didn't know how to make small talk with her, so she pointed to a tire and said, "Cassandra's sitting over there, have you talked to her yet?"

Misto enterpreted and Lyplora shook her head, "no we haven't, we'll go talk to her right now," she signed, taking Demeter's hint.

They walked over to Cassandra's table, Jellicles getting out of their way as they went. When they got there, they greeted Cassy and sat down, happy at least she was there.

"Nice party, huh?" asked Lyplora with a little sarcasm.

"It could be better if they'd be be more polite."

"Definitely," signed Misto, agreeing with Cassandra.

"So how old is Demeter anyway?" Lyplora asked curiously.

"It's the 8th anniversary to her 21st birthday," answered Misto, grinning.

Lyplora did her best not to laugh out loud, but even Cassandra couldn't help but to chuckle under her breath.

"Have you seen Admetus?" asked Lyplora, recovering herself, "it looks like the whole junkyard is here."

"He wasn't envited, I asked," explained Cassandra with a frown.

"Why not?" asked Lyplora.

"Demeter wouldn't say why not, she was surprised I would ask about him at all."

They sat for a while talking and watching the party going on around them, enjoying the food and having a pretty good time.

Lyplora especially enjoyed the music, the fast, vibrant rhythms of Latin America were her favorite because they were so easy to feel.

"I think I'd like to walk around a bit," she signed after a while, getting up and being followed by Misto and Cassi.

They headed in no particular direction, they just wanted to stretch their legs a bit, they were near the great tire when Lyplora noticed Demeter and Bombalurina not far away. They were talking to each other and occassionally glancing at them, Cassandra didn't seem to hear them but Misto did, who pricked up his ears and listened.

Lyplora watched him curiously until Bomba and Demeter turned around and looked shocked to see them standing there, they backed away slowly.

Lyplora turned to Misto, realizing they were talking about her. "What were they saying?"

"Demeter was telling Bomba that she only envited you because Munkustrap told her to. She thought you wouldn't even notice the party going on because you couldn't hear the music and you wouldn't see the lights from your lair."

Lyplora could not believe this, how could Demeter think this way? She walked right up to Demeter, followed closely by Misto and Cassi.

"You wouldn't have envited me? Seriously Demeter, you are shallow," signed Lyplora furiously as Misto enterpreted for her.

"That is low Demeter, you ought to be ashamed for thinking like that," said Cassandra.

"Well, I didn't think..." said Demeter, not being able to come up with a good excuse.

"Do you honestly think I am that unaware of my surroundings?" she asked, Misto enterpreting for Demeter with narrowed eyes, as if daring her to answer.

"You know," begun Cassandra, about ready to explode, "I was starting to think that with Lyplora around, you and the others would become more open minded and I wouldn't have to hide it anymore. But now I realize that I was right in never telling any of you that I am hard of hearing!"

Misto enterpreted as Cassandra spoke, and both Lyplora and the other cats standing nearby were taken aback by this revalation. Lyplora was the first to ask, "You're hard of hearing?"

Cassandra nodded and said while signing as the others started to backed up, "my hearing didn't fully return after the explosion. Everything I do hear sounds very distant, that's why I don't sing very much at the Jellicle ball. I hid it from the others, thinking they would reject me, I got along mostly by lip reading."

"Why didn't you tell me?" asked Lyplora, still getting over the shock.

"I didn't think it mattered."

Lyplora looked at her for a moment, taking it in, but then she nodded. "You're right," she signed, "it doesn't matter."

The other Jellicles stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to say. Finally, Lyplora shook her head and signed to Mistoffelees and Cassandra, "come on, they don't want us here." And they left the party, Lyplora feeling a new closeness to Cassandra as they made their way past the crowd of Jellicles and through the junkyard.

When they were a good distance from the party, they sat down.

"It's a good thing you're here Lyplora, I really did feel lonely and disconnected until I started to learn sign."

"You should also thanks Misto, without him, you probably wouldn't have learned my language so well," signed Lyplora, smirking at the awkward tom. And with that she put her arm around Misto's shoulders and kissed on the cheeck.

"Thanks Misto, both of you have opened a new world for me, we're I can now be understood. Screw the others, they don't realize they are missing out on getting to know a lot of wonderful Jellicles," signed Cassandra, refferencing themselves as well as Admetus, and pretending not to notice Lyplora's silly flirting with Misto.

"Yeah, it's their loss," signed Misto before returning Lyplora's affection in an exagerated manner, both of them acting so gooy gooy romantic that it took everything they had not to laugh at themselves.

Cassandra smacked herself in the face, these two were just too much.


	14. She's magical

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS, Owl City, or the songs mentioned in this chapter**

**Fact: Juliette Low, founder of Girl Scouts of America, was deaf.**

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><p><strong>All dialogue is in sign language.<strong>

It was a week after Demeter's birthday party, Lyplora had been practicing magic every spare minute she had, she was finally ready to tell Misto. The problem was, they had had a fight that day. She had put a dead snake in Bombalurina's nest and he was the one who got in trouble for it. It ended with them having a huge argument about why the others treated her the way they do.

She waited impatiently in the clearing, wondering if he would show up.

"He probably won't come, and I wouldn't blame him. I've been pulling some nasty pranks on some of the cats here, and he's probably right about everything," Lyplora thought to herself.

Just as she was thinking this Mistoffelees walked into the clearing, looking rather nervous.

"Hey look, about earlier-" but she cut him off with a wave of her paw.

"I'm sorry I got you chewed out by them for the trouble I've been causing. I realize that my pulling pranks is one of the reasons the others don't like me much. From now on, I'll only prank you, my cousins, and Tugger."

"I was about to apologize for being overly critical earlier," signed Misto, "I was frustrated because of a certain spell I'm practicing, but that's no excuse for throwing everything in your face like that."

"It's okay, I forgive you. And besides, dealing with my favorite pass time while you're trying to learn something that's hard, I understand, I'm really sorry for being so difficult."

"You shouldn't have to apologize, I'm the one who said all that stuff about you, I'm the one who should be sorry. And just so you know, the way the others treat you has almost nothing to do with your pranks, I've seen them do much worse to each other. The reason they act the way they do is because they are ignorant," signed Misto, determinedly trying to get his point across. "And I think they like being ignorant, so are we okay?"

"Not quite yet," she signed, and then she pulled him into a long passionate kiss, as if trying to show him she wasn't still upset.

"Now we're okay," she signed after she broke off the kiss, leaving Misto stunned. "I just don't like to fight, I get worried, most deaf-hearing relationships don't work out. So I wanted to show you that I'm not angry anymore," she explained, seeing the confused expression on Misto's face.

"You don't have to worry, I wouldn't break up with you over something so trivial," signed the tux, looking at her earnestly. "Besides, I shouldn't have said that to you."

"Yeah, well, I still shouldn't have let you take the blame, so I should be sorry too."

"It's okay," signed Misto, "I know you'd do the same for me."

"You know it."

"So why are we going on about it?" asked Misto, laughing exasperatedly.

"Because I worry too much, because I never imagined myself in a deaf-hearing relationship before, and I really like you," she signed.

"It's because most toms think 'she's hot and can't talk, perfect'," signed Misto, trying to get her to smile.

"You're not like that, and even though I want to stay mad at you because you said all that crap earlier, I can't stay mad, because I love you."

You would not have expected her to tell him this earlier that same day, as she ran off in tears after they had their row. But it wasn't really what he had said to her, it was because of they way she felt toward him that getting into a fight hurt so bad.

Mistoffelees starred at her, and he felt his breath come in short pants as he took it in. "I love you too," he signed and said, wanting her to really know that he meant it.

"Love hurts, doesn't it?" she asked with a smile.

"Yeah, it does," he signed, still looking at her apologetically.

Lyplora smiled brightly at him, wanting him to know she wasn't the kind of queen who would hold stuff agaisn't him.

"Misto, there's something I need to show you, wait here." She was about to show him what she had been practicing, she felt ready to tell him.

She dragged out the old record player and put on an Owl City record she had found, she turned up the volume and blared Vanilla Twilight, just the thing to set the mood.

She stood where she could face him, weeks of practicing and she had finally succeeded, it was now, or never.

"Misto, when I was a kitten, I used to have dreams about my paws glowing. As I grew up, I've always been fascinated by magic. When Orangelow, my fiance, was killed, I dreamed that night I was closing his wounds with my paws. I've been practicing something, I want you to watch," she signed very slowly, wanting to make him curious.

She stepped back, holding her paws in front of her face, trying to concentrate. She looked at the confused tom, and then closed her eyes and begun mouthing the words to the spell with force. She moved her paws back and fourth repeatedly, mouthing the words again and again, building up momentum until she felt the energy bursting out from her paws.

She opened her eyes and her paws were glowing blue, Misto's mouth hung open and he couldn't take his eyes off of her.

She started tracing the air with her paws along with the music, the light emanating throughout the clearing as the sun set.

As the song ended she slowly held her paws out and the light faded away.

Misto was frozen in awe, he could not believe this was real. "Lyplora," he begun, paws shaking, "you're a healer."

Lyplora simply nodded her head, not breaking eye contact with him.

"I never thought I would meet a magical queen, this is..." he couldn't even put the words together.

Lyplora smiled and took his paws, putting them around herself, "just dance," she signed, as the record player went to the next track and Lonely Lullaby begun to play.


	15. A close call

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: the estimated number of official signs is millions.**

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><p>Mistoffelees and Lyplora slowly crept out of the warehouse were the magic council meeting had been held, followed closely by the twins. It had been a very serious meeting, once it is discovered that a Jellicle had magical properties, the council has to accept them and decide how they are to be trained.<p>

Lyplora demonstrated that she had the abilities of a healer and it was decided after a tense discussion among the elders that she could train with Misto and the twins. The results may have been in her favor, but the whole ordeal had been nerve racking. Having to perform several healing spells in front of a group of strange cats and speaking to them through Misto, while worrying they might assign her a master she had never met. Most of them eyed her cynically and obviously doubted she would ever amount to anything, but even those who were skeptical realized she needed to at least be taught. In the end they all had to vote and she got in by a majority.

As they made their way out the door into the bright sunlight, Lyplora couldn't help but jump for joy because she had proven herself in front of the whole council.

"Damn I'm glad that's over, now lets get out of here before they change their minds."

"Definitely," agreed Misto, who was probably more nervous than she was. Even he wasn't very fond of the council, and was always relieved to get away from the meetings.

The four cats walked the streets of London slowly, enjoying the sunlight, (which is quite rare in London) when suddenly a pollicle dog came dashing towards them.

At the sight of the dog they bolted, none looking back. The pollicle dog was hot on their tales, and the crowd of people parted as the cats flew past at full speed, desparate to escape.

They dashed through crowds and traffic, even going through the alley ways, but always the dog was close behind.

They raced through the streets as fast as they could go, never shaking the dog. Once they were out of the crowd Mistoffelees fired a few random lightning bolts, but nothing seemed to stop this particular pollicle.

As the dog was closing in on them the junkyard finally came into sight, there was just one more road to cross.

They made a mad dash for the road, knowing once they had made it across and were through the fence they were safe. As they ran across the street it seemed that they were home free, when suddenly Lyplora tripped on a manhole cover.

Lyplora looked up to see Misto and the twins safely on the other side, when Misto turned around and saw her in the street.

In less then a second she had leapt to her feet and raced across the road, to afraid to look back at the dog that was almost on top of her

As she jumped onto the curb a huge truck rushed past and the pollicle nearly ran into the side before it halted, and Misto shot the dog with lightning, hitting it and making it turn on it's heals.

Lyplora collapsed on the sidewalk panting and Misto and the twins approached her. Misto reached out to touch her shoulder and she nodded to show that she was okay. She slowly got back to her feet, still panting, but then smiled tiredly. They all stood there panting until Lyplora started to chuckle and they all followed suite, laughing madly at what had just happened. Lyplora leaned gently on Misto's shoulder and they all continued to laugh when they all suddenly looked up.

Demeter was standing up on the fence watching them. They starred at her wide eyed and she starred back, shaking all over before she dissappeared over the fence.

Lyplora looked down at the pavement and Misto put his arm around her, they knew what was coming.


	16. Wanting to understand

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: In 1880, the National Association of the Deaf near Washington D.C. They to this day have fought to protect the civil rights of the deaf.**

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><p>"She almost got run over, she didn't know the truck was even coming! She didn't hear it and didn't look to see if the street was clear. I knew something like this would happen. You have to do something, we can't let anything like this happen again."<p>

"Alright, where are they Demeter?" asked Munkustrap, guiltily contemplating the hard decision before him, when Mistoffelees and the others ran up to them, hoping it wasn't too late.

"What's she been telling you?" asked Misto, out of breath from running all the way there to catch Demeter.

"Only the truth," said Demeter, "that Lyplora almost got run over because she didn't know the car was coming."

"Did she mention the pollicle?" asked Tantomile, looking at Demeter critically.

Munkustrap looked at her and back at Misto, "what pollicle?"

"The pollicle that was chasing us, if she hadn't crossed the street it would have eaten her," explained Misto. "What did you expect her to do? She made it to the curb just in time and her being deaf had nothing to do with it. She did what any of us would have done, she ran for her life."

"Is this true, did you see a pollicle?" Munkustrap asked his mate.

"Yes there was one, but she tripped and it almost got her, don't you see how vulnerable she is? That's why I think it's not a good idea for her to be here, I understand that she's not stupid, but she's obviously in constant danger."

Misto, the twins, Lyplora, and even Munkustrap starred at her, this was the worst reasoning that had ever come out of her mouth.

"So, she tripped... because she's deaf?" asked Coricopat, with raised eyebrows.

"Well, no, but..." she felt more and more stupid as she spoke.

"Demeter, what do you want me to do?" asked Munkustrap, at a loss. "Send her away? What do you expect from me? I mean, come on, you're telling on her for outrunning a truck and a pollicle!"

Demeter didn't have an answer, instead she took to ranting about how somebody had to do something about the poor pathetic deaf cat that was obviously in mortal danger just from stepping out of her den.

When she was done, Lyplora stepped forward, holding her paws out to let them know she wanted to put something into the conversation.

Misto stood behind her and spoke as she signed: "I have something to say, as uneducated as you are about deaf culture, I came here only wanting to find acceptance and I even thought we could be friends. If you honestly think I can't do anything, then I'll just stay out of your way from now on, I'm sorry for wanting friendship. I'll see you at the ball."

And with that she turned and left, heading towards her den.

Munkustrap narrowed his eyes as he looked at the shocked expression on his mate's face, shaking his head.

Misto turned to follow Lyplora, and so did the twins, leaving Demeter alone with Munkustrap.

"She's coming to the ball?" asked Demeter.

Munkustrap smacked himself in the face and walked away, realizing it was best left alone.

Demeter stood there alone, upset they wouldn't listen, and angry she couldn't find any good reason for thinking as she did.

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><p>Mistoffelees was performing the most amazing magical acts imaginable, levitating half the junkyard and surrounding all of the Jellicles with dancing beams of light. Suddenly, there came a loud pounding noise that rang through his head, and he felt something pull him forward until... he was awake, sitting up in bed, with somebody pounding on his door outside.<p>

Misto groggily got to his feet and walked to the door, "this better be important," he thought to himself.

He reached the door and opened it, only to find Demeter standing outside, looking anxious.

"May I talk to you Misto?"

"It's one in the morning," he said, looking at his clock and then glaring at Demeter like she had just slapped his mother.

"This is important," she said desparately, "this is really important."

"fine, come inside," he conceded, as he got out of her way and she came in.

He led her into the sitting area and pointed at a cushion and she sat down and so did he. "So what do you need?" he asked, irritated. He had already guessed what she wanted to talk to him about.

"Well, I came over to talk about Lyplora..."

"Of course," he said, not at all surprised.

"Look, I don't want her thrown out of the tribe. I guess the reason I act the way I do is because I feel so sorry for her," she explained, hoping Misto would understand. "I mean, isn't that why she pulls pranks? Because she's jealous of us, right?"

"No, she pulls pranks because she thinks it's fun. Don't feel sorry for her, she can handle herself. It's just her ears that don't work, not her body, or her brain, and she doesn't feel sorry for herself, so why should you?"

"Well, I understand that she has learned to cope, but I thought maybe you could find a healer or something. Just think about how happy she would be if you could find a spell or anything, a potion! Something that could cure her."

Mistoffelees raised an eyebrow, she just didn't get it.

"Demeter, she doesn't need a cure, she is comfortable being deaf."

"But doesn't she want to hear? Isn't that what all... um," she stuttered, as if afraid to say the word.

"It's called being deaf, the word isn't offensive. And you need to understand that she is comfortable with who she is and doesn't want to change, we've talked about it."

"She can't enjoy being deaf, I mean, she can't listen to music or sing or dance or talk..."

"She doesn't focus on what she can't do, she focuses on what she can do. And she can enjoy music, she feels the rhythm and melody if it's turned up loud enough. She can dance, and you know what else she can do? She can tell amazing stories, she can catch her own dinner, she can play cards and, she can groom herself. She can do anything you can, except hear. She even writes poetry!"

Demeter was without words as she listened to what he said, unsure of what she should think.

"Here," said Misto, handing her a sheet of paper, "she wrote this, maybe this will make you understand."

SPEAK WITH YOUR HANDS, LISTEN WITH YOUR EYES

I have a strong voice,  
>and I speak with my hands.<p>

My language is a part of my heritage, my culture, it's a part of me.

It's not universal. In Germany they use German sign,

in America they use American sign,  
>and here in Britain, we use British sign.<p>

I've seen them talk,  
>and it's a good language they use,<br>but most don't know how to listen like they're deaf.

I listen with my eyes,  
>whether they can sign or not,<br>I focus on what they're saying.

Most have no clue that to listen means to pay attention and to try to understand,  
>to feel for them and to not speak over them.<p>

Yeah, I know I speak with my hands,  
>but I have a strong voice,<br>because I speak with passion.  
>I listen with my eyes,<br>sympathetically and understandingly,  
>I hear what they're saying.<p>

My language is a part of my culture,  
>a part of me.<br>I use it to speak the wisdom of the ages,  
>to say beautiful things, to recite the poetry that lies within me.<p>

With my hands I bare my very soul,  
>with my eyes I listen as they pour out their hearts.<p>

I speak with my hands,  
>I listen with my eyes.<p>

Demeter shook her head as she finished reading the last lines of the poem, feeling her entire idea of what it meant to be deaf being shattered before her.

"She gave you a name sign."

Demeter looked up at the tux, startled he had spoken and taken aback by what he had said.

"A what?" she asked.

"A name sign," he explained. "It's a special name that only someone in the deaf community can give you, it's like a gift. Most name signs start with an initial and the rest is a description of the cat they're given to. Usually referring to a particular personality trait or a physical characteristic. "

Demeter looked away, scared to know what Lyplora called her. "What does she call me? Bitchy?"

Mistoffelees shook his head, "Your name sign starts with the first letter of your name," (does the sign for D), "and then for you, she chose the sign for beautiful, because that's what she says you are." And he showed Demeter the sign for beautiful, moving his paw in front of his face and spreading his fingers and smiling brightly. (You should look up the actual sign, so you can get a better idea of what it looks like).

Demeter had no idea what to say, she didn't know if she should feel flattered or ashamed. She reread the poem again and sat there quietly.

"May I have this?" she asked.

"Sure, take it, Lyplora has another copy," he said, standing up.

Demeter stood up to leave, folding up the poem, "thanks," she said, and with that she left Misto's den, leaving him to get back to bed and back to the dream he was having.

"She won't get it..." he thought, dropping off to sleep.


	17. The theatre

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS or any of the songs or stories mentioned in this chapter. And the skits in this chapter I got insperation for from watching some deaf theater performances in a documentary.**

**Fact: In 1967, the National Theatre of the Deaf held their first ever performance in summer at Wesleyan University, in Middletown Connecticut, and went on their first national tour that fall.**

**Notes to my readers: Yes, the poems are mine, but looking over the last chapter, I want to clear something up. I said a few times before in this story that Lyplora doesn't speak, but for the record, there are deaf people who do speak. It's just that nobody taught Lyplora I guess, anyway, she's more comfortable signing : )**

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><p>"I can't believe I let them talk me into this," thought Demeter, as she followed Lyplora through the streets of London. She and Lyplora had been on better terms lately, she even sent her an apology for telling on Lyplora for almost getting killed.<p>

She thought back on everything Misto had said to her. That it would be a good way for them to bond, that it would prove to her that Lyplora could put on a spectacular performance at the Jellicle ball, and that this was a good opportunity for her to learn more about deaf culture.

Demeter knew they had good reasons for sending her with Lyplora, but it just felt awkward because of the language barrier.

"Hey, hurry up slow poke!" signed Lyplora to Demeter, frustrated that she wasn't keeping up.

Demeter followed Lyplora as they made there way through London, until Lyplora stopped in front of an old fire house with windows that led into the basement.

"I've never been to this event before, because I didn't get out much being an indoor kittie, but Orangelow told me all about it when he would go," signed Lyplora excitedly.

Demeter, who hardly knew any sign, starred at her confused. "Um... that's great," she said, figuring she should just go with it.

Lyplora chuckled and nodded her head. "This is going to be fun," she thought.

Lyplora then gestured towards a window that was open and walked up to it and pointed inside and stepped through it. Demeter reluctantly followed her and went through the window, jumping onto boxes that led to the floor.

Lyplora pointed to a door and ran up to it and hopped up on a box next to it. Demeter starred at her again, confused that she didn't knock.

"Why don't you knock?" she asked.

Lyplora shook her head and reached for a light switched and flipped it on and off repeatedly and the door opened.

They stepped through the door and found a room full of cats going this way and that around a large stage and milk crate stands, and they were all signing.

Lyplora was extremely giddy and joyful to be there, taking in the whole scene. "Maybe I can finally go a whole day without having to lip read!" she thought, relishing the idea.

Demeter looked this way and that, to her the whole thing was foreign and she felt completely lost, kinda the way Lyplora felt around them...

"Hey, Lyplora," she said, but Lyplora didn't turn around, so Demeter tapped her gently on the shoulder to get her attention. "Are there any hearing cats here?" she asked, when Lyplora turned and faced her.

"Wwwe haf a ffewww, but mosst of us are deafff or harrd of hearingg," said a very forced sounding voice from off to the side, and a smoke colored queen approached.

"Hhi, you'rre neww here?" she asked, signing as she spoke.

"Yes, so you can speak?" asked Demeter, before she realized how rude the question sounded.

Lyplora smacked herself in the face at this, "of course she can speak. What did you think she was doing? Mooing?"

The smoke colored queen smiled though and nodded. "I wass taughtt frumm a youngg age to speeak, buttt I'mm deafff."

"Wait, so if deaf cats can speak, why don't all of you learn how to?" asked Demeter, confused.

"Becaussse we don't sounnnd thatt greatt and it takesss a lottt of practiccce. And nottt evry-one who'sss deaff, iss comffortable talkinggg."

Demeter looked at Lyplora and raised an eyebrow, to which Lyplora shrugged in reply. "Nobody ever taught me to speak your language, and I don't know how I'd sound. For all I know, nobody would understand me even if I did learn."

The smoke colored queen enterpreted for Demeter, who was glad she found someone she could understand.

"So do you come to this event every year?" asked Demeter, curiously.

"I comme forrr one dayy, I lookk forwward to itt evry yearr," she said and signed.

"How long is this event anyway?" asked Lyplora.

"Itt lastss one weekk, the besst deaff perfformers from all ovr the cuntry come here."

Suddenly the lights on the stage went on and off a few times and all the cats started to get themselves seated.

"I haf to go, I'mm needed back stagge," said the smoke colored queen as she hurried off.

Demeter and Lyplora took their seats and waited. "This is going to be good," signed Lyplora, Demeter smiled awkwardly, but then the curtain was raised.

A brown tabby tom who was hearing stood on the stage and addressed the audience, speaking as he signed. "Queens and gentle-toms, welcome to the deaf cat theater of London. Tonight is our opening night and we have many wonderful performances lined up, with deaf and hard of hearing stars from around the country. Let the show begin!"

The curtain closed and all the lights went out, they waited in the darkness. Demeter wondered what she was about to see, it all seemed alienating and she felt as though she shouldn't be welcome there. After a minute the music begun to sound from the speakers, and the curtains were lifted.

The first act was a very abstract piece of visual performance out, the dancers performing a lovely ballet with tiny lights blinking in the dark background. It was spectalular, as they danced carrying streamers across the stage and performing differernt acrobatics on ropes and raised platforms. It ended with the toms throwing the queens up in the air and catching them and getting down on one knee and the audience cheered, Demeter just sat there, speechless at the performance.

The curtains closed and opened again and the next act begun.

A silver queen whereing lots costume jewelry and a golden tom whereing a heavily starched collar with a monicle and cheesy mustache stood on stage. They strutted back and fourth across the stage, pretending to be very dignified. They acted like they were looking down upon some roughian, over exagerating that they were upper class and so they didn't like to have fun. After strutting about to the slow rhythm and getting the whole room all hyped up with the ludicrussness of it, both turned to the audience and winked. The song SING SING SING by Benny Goldman begun to play loudly from some speakers and at the first beats they striped off the jewelry and other articles and begun to dance like it was the 1920s. They were a marvelous pair, now acting like a couple of 'bright young people,' out on the town in the roaring twenties.

The whole audience was blown away by their performance.

The curtains were raised again and a brown tom stood on stage, and a drum begun to beat. The tom started to mime the story of the Tell Tale Heart by Edger Allan Poe, and the whole audience held their breath because of the eeriness of the tom's enterpretation. The whole room felt silent except for the ever present beating of the drum, and the tom on stage held everyone's attention like he was the only thing that existed at the moment.

The next act was a cat version of a Charlie Chaplin short, performed by a short and slightly chubby tux cat who could have passed as chaplins double with a tail.

After that there was some signed poetry, but there was an enterpreter for the hearing cats in the audience.

But the act that made Demeter truly feel moved was close to the end of the show. The last poet left the stage and the curtain closed, and when it opened again, the smoke colored queen sat in the middle of the stage on her knees.

Another cat walked up to her, she was an angry looking tabby. "Conform, conform damn it!" she yelled, and struck her across the face.

The smoke colored queen sank lower to the floor and the tabby loomed over her. "Conform damn it!" and again she struck.

But then another cat came out, she sat down and took the queens paw and had her hold her face with it.

"Say cat," she said, touching different parts of her face as she said it, showing her how to form the sounds with her mouth.

"Say C.A.T," she said. The smoky queen holding her face, tried, saying, 'ct."

"Conform damn it, comform!" and she got smacked again.

"Cat."

"Ct."

"Conform!"

"C.a.t."

"Ctt.."

"Conform!"

"Cat."

"Cuttt..."

*smack*

"C.a.t." she said, looking up at the queen with fear in her eyes. "Cattt..."

The teacher cat smiled and left the scared smoky colored queen with her mother, thinking she had done a good job.

The curtain closed.

Demeter sat there in tears, she had been the one yelling conform, she watched herself play that mother cat.

The next act was a dance performed to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, it was breath taking.

As the last curtain fell after the final performance there was a standing ovation, followed by some announcements.

Demeter felt as though time had stopped as they left, she didn't want the show to end. "Lyplora," she said, making sure Lyplora could see her lips move, "do you want to go to the rest of the shows this week?"

Lyplora watched her speak and nodded, knowing Demeter was as hungry for more as she was.

* * *

><p>"When's the Jellicle ball, Master? I can't wait for the junkyard takeover!" said the calico queen from behind the bed curtain.<p>

Macavity looked over to her and smiled. "It's at the end of this month, pet, and it's going to be cold. So don't you lose anymore of your fur."

"Yes Master," she said. Macavity had been pulling out her fur in clumps.

Macavity sat, polishing the flute of Translador, pleased that it had worked on every cat he tried it on.

"At the end of this month, the Jellicle tribe is mine," he mused.

"Master, you haven't given me any orders for a while, and you do know how much a love to follow your orders."

"Fine, go bring me a CAT FANCY magazine and be quick about it," he said, and she slinked off into the shadows to go get one.

"I'll get Demeter back, and she'll love me. But even better, I can get revenged on a certain tux for foiling so many of my plans..."


	18. Demeter defends her

**Disclaimer: I don't own cats!**

**Fact: In the 1976 presidential campaign, Presidents Ford and Carter used the 'I love you', sign.**

**Notes: for the record, the sign language I'm using in this story is American Sign Language, because that's what I know. In reality, they'd be using British sign, so please don't go to England thinking you would be understood by a deaf person there using what I've described in this story. Remember, sign is not universal, it differs from country to country, and the same signed language can have many different regional dialects within the same country.**

* * *

><p>"How was your week with Demeter?" asked Misto.<p>

"It was wonderful, the only regret I have, is that I haven't been spending as much time with you love," signed Lyplora.

"Don't worry, I'm glad you had a good time."

"Thanks."

They both turned to look out the window of the loft, a week with the owners was just what they needed to catch up. They watched the traffic and the people going by down on the ground, humans were interesting to watch.

Lyplora gazed at them as they came and went, why were they all in such a hurry? She sighed and started snapping her fingers until they started to glue blue, loving the feeling of the magic she possessed flowing from her paw.

"That's really beautiful," signed Misto sincerely. "I never thought I would ever fall in love with a magical queen."

Lyplora smiled at him in her understanding way. "I never thought I would fall in love with a hearing tom."

They kissed in the window sill until it got pretty intense, and Misto broke off the kiss.

"What's wrong?" asked Lyplora, wanting to go further.

"My little sister is in the next room, I don't want her to walk in on us."

"Oh right, well damn," she pouted.

"And I don't want my humans to get me neutered," signed Misto, shuddering at the thought.

Suddenly, Victoria peaked her head into the room, looking very excited. "Jeniffer's home, and she's brought Tuna!" she squealed.

"Alright, we're coming," Misto yelled back, and then signed what Victoria said to Lyplora.

"Tuna, we're going to get so fat if she keeps giving that to us," signed Lyplora, getting up.

"Not with winter coming, trust me on that one."

"Will you take care of me during the harsh, cold, cold winter?" Lyplora asked jokingly, acting pathetic and helpless.

Misto answered by kissing her, but was interrupted by Victoria, peaking around the door again. "Come on, she's brought out the can opener."

Misto sighed and they jumped down from the window sill, following behind Victoria.

"Oh well, not this time. Maybe during the cat orgy at the ball, (yes, in this story it's an orgy, because they're frigg'in cats), since I'm poping the question that night anyway," Lyplora thought to herself.

They didn't know, it but at that very moment in the junkyard, there were cats talking about them.

"Where've you been all week Demeter? I haven't seen you around the junkyard at all," said Bombalurina.

"Well..."-"It's not like you to just ditch me all week. We're supposed to be working on the dance number for all the queens, and we haven't even decided what we're doing yet."

Demeter listened to what Bomba said and wanted to asked something, but she already knew the answer. "All the queens, except Lyplora, right?"

Bomba was taken aback by this, to her, that went without saying.

"She has some really good ideas for the ball this year, you know she's really creative," said Demeter.

"Demeter, she can barely go anywhere without having Misto follow her like a stalker, it's awkward."

"Bomba, they're dating. In fact, it's getting serious. The other day, Lyplora told me that she was thinking of propposing to Misto."

Bomba was completely dumbfounded by this, it made absolutely no sense in her brain.

"How can they be dating? I mean, how do they even have sex? Wouldn't she think he was trying to hurt her or something?"

"She knows what sex is, she's not ignorant," said Demeter, disgusted.

"Where did this change in attitude come from, you didn't even want her at your birthday party."

"Well, I've learned better," said Demeter, "and honestly, I can't wait to see what she does at the ball."

Bomba got up and looked down at Demeter, she could not believe that she was hearing this from her.

"Demeter, the fact that she's allowed at the ball at all I find hard enough to believe,"-"but we've always allowed Cassandra, and she's hard of hearing," interrupted Demeter.

"Well, she can hear us, she can participate."

Demeter got up and looked at Bomba seriously. "Bomba, she could barely participate because she was mostly lip reading. She was more excluded because of our ignorance than you can imagine."

"You're calling us ignorant now? You're becoming one of them. Well tell me this, what can Lyplora contribute to the tribe?"

This time Demeter was the one taken aback, coming from Bomba, this question was just ludicrus. "What can she contribute to the tribe? This, coming from you?"

Bomba became enraged at this, she could barely contain her anger. "What are you saying?"

Demeter just stood there and shook her head. "This is what you are resorting to for the sake of defending your own ignorance, because you can't find a better reason to think the way you do."

Something in Bomba snapped. "No, that is not what I'm doing! I want to know from you right now. What has she ever contributed to the tribe?" she yelled.

"I'll tell you what she has contributed," said a deep female voice from below the tire where they stood, and Cassandra stepped forward.

"She has introduced a language to me, where I don't have to sit there and feel completely lost most of the time. Thanks to Lyplora, I can participate more and not feel like I'm just looking in from the outside."

Bomba starred at Cassandra, unable to respond.

"And do you know what else she has done? She has helped Admetus more than you can imagine, because thanks to her, he can now go out and find food for his kittens."

"He has kittens?" asked Bomba, "Since when does he have kittens? And could we have not known this?"

Cassandra smirked, finding her shock amusing but obvious. "Of course you wouldn't know, I didn't know, because I did just what the rest of you did. If I saw him coming, I'd walk away, we chose not to see it. Even when his kittens would go out and play, all the mothers would rush away with their kits as soon as they saw him amongst them."

Bomba could not form any coherrent argument in her head, but she could not be wrong in this.

Cassandra continued, "she has kept his family from starving by helping him get food. She has brought him blankets, she has kitten sat for him,"-"You mean she was left alone with kittens!"

Cassi looked at Bomba cynically, this was way to much. "Yes, she's been left alone with kittens. Kittens you would have allowed to starve to death, just because you think the father is a little creepy looking."

"You're not just going to stand there and let her say this to me," said Bomba, turning to Demeter.

"Actually I am, because she's right. And I would have allowed it too, because I didn't know. Lyplora's deaf, but we've been blind."

Bomba was heartbroken that her best friend wasn't standing up for her, she felt very defensive and threatened.

"It's too embarrassing to have her at the ball, Jellicles from far and near are coming. I'm not trying to be shallow,"-"But you are," put in both Demeter and Cassandra.

"She's just so pathetic. She's so desparate to be like everyone else that she stands out in the crowd. It would be horrible for the tribes reputation. She can't be allowed at the ball."

Bombalurina then turned and left, determined to make the tribe see her point of view. She was truly, the shallowest cat in the junkyard.


	19. We'll be like sisters

**disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: Thomas Eddison, record holder for patenting the most inventions, was deaf.**

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><p>The next few weeks were back and fourth to the owner's loft and going to magic council meetings. They had originally intended to only stay with the humans one week, but they found that being there gave Lyplora a chance to practice her magic in peace, so they decided to extend their visit. Lyplora's magic was slowly improving and at one council meeting she was allowed to actually practice closing cuts on real cats. She was splendid.<p>

They didn't go back to the junkyard much except to bring Admetus food and to kitten sit for him because they were enjoying the time away so much.

Lyplora and Misto even found a place under the kitchen sink were they could go to get frisky if no one was home. It was all really great.

The ball was drawing nearer and Lyplora seemed to get more giddy as they counted down the days, she couldn't wait to do what she had been planning.

During this time Victoria was learning sign language, but she was slow in picking it up and her signs looked very clumsy.

The humans were wonderful, Jeniffer would spend hours playing video games blowing the heads off of zombies while also flitting around the cat teazer for them. It was hilarious to watch.

But eventually they did have to get back to the junkyard, so they decided to leave just a a few days before the ball.

Misto left the night before Victoria and Lyplora because he had a bunch of things that needed to be done before the ball, enchantments to keep humans from seeing or hearing it and other such precautions.

"I'll see you tomorrow love, remember to be outside at nine and I'll teleport you," signed Misto, standing at the front entrance to the building.

"I know, good night," Lyplora signed back, and Misto gave her a goodbye kiss before teleporting back to the junkyard.

Lyplora walked back up to the loft in a daze, it was only for one night but she didn't want to see him go. She made it back to the loft thinking seriously about what she was planning for the ball and decided to tell Victoria about what she wanted to ask her brother.

"She barely knows any sign after all this time, this will be fun," she thought, as she fetched a crumpled piece of paper from under the sink and then went to see Victoria on her window sill.

Lyplora knocked on the wall which got Victoria's attention and she jumped up next to her.

"I need to talk to you. This is really important, it has to do with me and Misto," signed Lyplora, a little quickly because she was nervous telling Victoria first.

"Wait, slow down, all I caught was you and Misto," said Victoria, disconcerted.

Lyplora held out her paws and nodded, showing she understood she needed to sign slower.

"I want to talk to you," signed Lyplora, to which Victoria nodded in response. "It's about me and Misto. I know we haven't known each other long, but I love him."

Victoria watched her and slowly got what she meant because of her deliberate movements and the signs that she recognized.

"I know you love him," she said, clumsily signing a few words here and there, "why are you telling me?"

"I'm going to propose to him," signed Lyplora, but Victoria didn't understand her, so she handed her the piece of paper.

Victoria unfolded it and read it slowly, and her confusion turned into a deep sense of awe as the full meaning of the poem sank in.

"You...you feel this strongly about my brother?" she asked, repeatedly looking down at the poem.

"Yes," she signed, "I'm going to propose to him at the ball. And I'm going to recite this to him, but he doesn't know it."

Victoria starred at her and Lyplora had to repeat herself several times, but she finally got it.

"Oh my CAT! You want to mate with him?" she squealed.

Lyplora nodded and then held up her paws again to get her to pay close attention to what she was about to say.

Victoria watched and slowly understood each word as Lyplora told her. "He... brought, the... magic, into my," said Victoria, " into... my life."

Lyplora nodded and signed everything very slowly, excited Victoria was getting it.

"And... he brought... the magic... out of me?" Victoria asked when she had finished, and Lyplora nodded earnestly and signed it again. "He brought the magic into my life, and he brought the magic out of me."

Victoria could barely contain her excitement, Lyplora was going to propose to her brother!

"Oh, Cat, we'll be like sisters if you two become mates!" she exclaimed.

The two hugged tightly, Victoria was so happy for her brother she wanted to cry.

"He's finally found a magical cat!" she said.

"Yup, I almost wish he was here right now," she signed, which Victoria didn't understand at all, but she shrugged and nodded.

"He brought the magic into my life, and he brought the magic out of me," thought Lyplora, looking out the window at the moon, which would be full in only three days.


	20. It won't work like that

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: An estimated 3,500 people are born profoundly deaf annually.**

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><p>The next morning Lyplora and Victoria were teleported back to the junkyard and straight into Misto's den, but from the moment they got there it was obvious something was wrong. Misto looked very anxious and scurried back and fourth across his den, searching for something.<p>

"What's wrong Misto?" asked Lyplora, after she had finally gotten his attention.

The room was all torn up with books scattered everywhere and potions knocked off the shelves.

"One of my spellbooks is missing!" he said and signed, as he opened a trunk and started tossing things out. "I can't find it anywhere, I got back last night and found this place broken into and my spellbook was gone!"

Victoria and Lyplora started helping Misto look for the book, hoping it was only missing and not stolen, but they searched for hours in vain.

Suddenly there came a call from outside, "meeting at the great tire in two minutes, everyone be there!"

Misto signed to Lyplora there had been an announcement and they quickly went out into the clearing and stood at the back of the crowd that had gathered.

Everyone was standing around the great tire waiting expectantly for whatever it was the jellicle leader was going to say, but it wasn't the jellicle leader who was going to speak. Old Deuteronomy was sitting back and so was Munkustrap, the jellicle who was standing up to speak was Bombalurina.

"Bomba, you said you wanted to address the junkyard, well, say whatever it was you wanted to say," said Old Deuteronomy.

Bomba smiled and nodded to the jellicle leader before turning to the crowd. "I have some great news for everyone," she begun, with a big grin. "We've found a cure for deafness!"

The whole crowd was greatly surprised and started talking amongst themselves about whether this was possible, but then Bomba raised her paws to get their attention again.

"You see, Demeter told me yesterday that Mistoffelees and Lyplora had discussed using magic to make her hear, so I assumed that that meant there had to be a spell, and I was right!" And with that she held up Mistoffelees' stolen spell book.

The crowd was amazed, all were excited for the opportunities they saw for Lyplora, maybe it would even help Cassandra? They talked amongst themselves excitedly, thinking this would be perfect.

At the back of the crowd stood Misto, Lyplora, and Victoria. Misto had interpreted for Lyplora and she was furious, she decided to take matters into her own paws.

She and Misto started to make their way up to the great tire and the crowd parted in front of them and cheered.

Bomba was so pleased with herself she greeted Lyplora with a big smile and yelled to the crowd of jellicles, "she's so happy she's come up to get the cure immediately!"

Misto looked daggers at Bomba and when she saw this she froze, and the smile begun to fade from her face.

"Bomba," begun Misto, "I'll disregard the fact that you broke into my den, if you'll listen to me. Lyplora doesn't want this, and you don't know the first thing about this spell. I've researched it, there's no counter curse, so it's permanent."

"That's wonderful," she said, and the crowd cheered.

"No it's not, because she won't understand all the sounds she'll suddenly be hearing. It will take years for her to learn to distinguish the sounds and she'd have to be talk to speak and understand spoken language. Now what if her brain couldn't handle all the auditory input she is suddenly getting for the first time in her life? She'd be stuck that way! Do you really want to do that to her?" said Misto, explaining to both the crowd and Bomba.

"I know what this is, you just like having her under your control," accused Bomba. "You'd take the hope away from a deaf cat and doom her to never be able to fully enjoy life because you like having power over her!"

Lyplora glarred at Bomba angrily, she was barely able to keep from attacking her. "Bomba shut up!" she signed, and Misto enterpreted.

Bomba simply grinned and pointed at them to show that she was right, but Lyplora continued. "Bomba! I don't need a cure. I understand that yes, there are some who are deaf who wish to hear, and more power to them if that's what they want. But I don't want that, and I don't think I should have to be permanently changed for your convenience. I was born into a world where what I experience is all sights and feelings and scents and minute sensations that most don't even pick up on because they're so distracted. I was born unable to hear, but you know what? At least, unlike some cats here, I can listen."

Misto enterpreted everything and then Lyplora turned to leave, but not before she turned around because she had one last point she wanted to make. "I've found some acceptance here, and I don't expect everyone to like me, but I didn't expect to see a rally of cats cheering that they found a way to force me to be like everyone else. So suck this!" and she gave them the finger.

She and Misto left the scene as quickly as they could and ran back to Lyplora's dishwasher den to be away from everyone.

They went inside and sat down, both angry and dissapointed at what they had just seen. They didn't discuss any of what happened, they could barely look at each other until lyplora sighed and leaned back agains't the wall.

"You know, a few years ago, I would have given anything to have something like what's in that spell book. And sometimes, I do wonder what things like laughter sound like. But the day Orangelow died, and remember, I didn't go out often back then, there were some cats who said it was because he was deaf. I was disgusted, that they would think that way, and so I decided to live to prove them wrong. And over time, do you know what I have discovered? I don't have to prove anything, because I'm happy with the way I interact with the world.  
>Every feeling and vibration of sound, every minute sensation or even sights that most would miss, that's what I'd miss if I became hearing. Because I'd be listening to music differently, everything would be different, and I know that different doesn't exactly mean bad, but I don't want to become numb to the way I've learned to experience things."<p>

Misto nodded earnestly, wanting her to know that he got it.

And then with a sad sarcastic smile she shook her head and signed, "I was an idiot, for thinking two different worlds could peacefully coexist."


	21. Blasting Stereos

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS**

**Fact: Jeffrey Float, American former swimmer, became the first legally deaf athlete from the U.S. to become a gold medalist in the Olympics.**

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><p>Lyplora wouldn't come out of her den, she was blasting her stereo ( leave it up to your imagination how she got it) so loud that the whole dishwasher shook so she wouldn't have to notice the door shake when someone knocked.<p>

It was the morning of the Jellicle Ball, but there was a lot of tension in the air as the tribe prepared. Some of the jellicles tried to pretend that the incident from a few days before hadn't happened at all, while others wouldn't stop arguing about it. Old Deuteronomy wanted them to just let the whole thing go but most felt indignant that Lyplora had acted the way she did just because they wanted to help her.

Bomba wouldn't talk about it, and Demeter was so angry at Bomba that she refused to talk to her.

There was so much arguing going on that some thought the ball wouldn't go smoothly, that some fight was going to break out over everything.

So Lyplora hid in her den because of all the trouble she felt she had caused, thinking it would all go better without her.

She had been blasting her speakers all night and wouldn't let anybody inside, not even Misto or Victoria. They would try to put slip pieces of paper through one of the vents to get messages to her, but she ignored them.

Cassandra didn't know what to do, neither she nor Admetus could get her to come out, and the ball was that evening. They all wondered if she would even attend.

Lyplora was laying inside her den with her back to the door, she didn't think she could see anybody right then, she just wanted to think and figure some things out. Even as the whole dishwasher shook and she felt every beat of the heavy metal coming from the speakers, she remained thoughtful and melancholy as she considered things.

Misto stayed outside her den, he didn't want to leave her alone, he couldn't leave her inside all alone.

Even as tribe members who were rarely seen because they were usually with there owners showed up, Misto didn't go and greet them, he didn't want to leave Lyplora.

He was really worried for her, and just when he had decided to teleport inside to see what was wrong, the music stopped.

He waited outside her den and waited, but the day was passing quickly. Around noon he slipped a note through the vent that said 'lunch', to which she opened the door and snatched the rat Misto was holding before he even realized what she had done.

Misto paced outside her den, he didn't know how much longer he could wait for her, but he was determined to wait her out.

Hours past and it was almost evening, and the moon had risen early, showing its pale, full face before the sun had even set.

Misto was worried about the time, would Lyplora even come to the Jellicle Ball? He wanted to know, so he wrote the question on a slip of paper and shoved it through the vent. A few minutes later the piece of paper was sent back, with the answer, 'I'm thinking about it,' written on it. Suddenly the door opened and Misto slowly stepped inside.

Lyplora was sitting up and nodded to a pillow for him to sit on when he entered.

Misto sat down and faced Lyplora, and with a concerned look on his face asked her, "so you gonna tell me what's wrong?"

Lyplora nodded and paused a moment before she explained. "I feel so stupid, for reacting the way I did. I mean, they just want me to hear, and we react like 'how dare they', is it so horrible that they want me to hear?"

Misto didn't know how to react, so he signed, "it depends on what you want."

"Its just so confusing..."

"It's whatever you want it to be."

"I'm happy with my life, and I don't feel as if I have to change to live life to the fullest."

"Then don't worry about it."

Lyplora sighed, to her it wasn't that easy, "it would make my life a whole lot easier."

"So what do you want to do?"

Lyplora shook her head, "I don't know, but if I became hearing, how would I change as a cat?"

"You wouldn't change, you'd still be you," signed Misto.

Lyplora looked at the tux seriously, she wanted him to understand how she felt. "I would change, because I wouldn't be doing it because I really wanted to hear. I'd be doing it so I could be like everyone else, and to make my life easier, and that's not me. That's how I know I would change, because doing things just to conform, that's not me. I wouldn't be the same cat anymore."

Misto starred at her for a moment and then nodded understandingly, he knew she was right in every respect.

"I'd become a different cat."

Misto nodded again and then there was a pause, in which neither knew what else to add.

After a minute Lyplora sighed a little and then grinned. "Conform! Conform damn it!" she signed and then she smacked an imaginary cat.

Misto choked to stop a laugh and and nodded, wide eyed. She had told him about that story, and that really was the way the others were acting.

"I've been thinking," signed Lyplora, after they both quit laughing, "I want you to use that spell on Casssandra, so she can have her normal hearing back."

Misto was taken aback by this, but when he thought about it, it seemed like a good idea.

"You see," she continued, "Cassi is always missing things the others say, and it can be frustrating for her, so I thought you could cast the hearing spell on her because I think it would honestly help her. Plus, she already knows what things sound like, so it shouldn't give her any problems."

"You do realize it will stirr up a lot of controversy,"-"hey, the fact that I'm not getting it done is controversial, but I think we should talk to her about it, see how she feels."

Misto nodded and signed, "I'll talk to her about it. Now, are you coming to the ball, because I am not dancing without you."

Lyplora smiled and nodded and Misto took her paw, and they walked out of her den together.

The sky was darkening and it seemed the moon was getting larger in the sky, and the air felt alive with magic.

"Ready for your first Jellicle ba"- but Misto was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a flute piercing through the air.


	22. The flute

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: there is only one known deaf rock group in the world, it consists of Bob Hilterman (drummer), Steve Longo (guitar), and Ed Chevy (bass). They call themselves 'Beethoven's Nightmare.'**

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><p>Misto's eyes went wide and he looked back and fourth, the music taking control. "I have to go," he said, and then he darted, leaving Lyplora alone in front of her den. <em>"What the hell?"<em> she thought, _"what was that?"_

Suddenly, Lyplora noticed other Jellicles hurrying in the same direction, all of them had looks of desparation on their faces, as if their lives depended on getting somewhere.

She started following them, keeping low so they wouldn't see her, but it wouldn't matter if they did, all that mattered to them was obeying.

Lyplora felt something odd in the air as she crept along the ground, and suddenly more cats came into sight. These were running at full speed, they looked like they were in total agony as they sped in the direction of the clearing.

Lyplora knew that something wasn't right, the vibrations coming from the ground seemed different than any music she had ever felt before. She noticed a pipe and ran up to it and touched it, the vibrations from the music felt like lightning and fire and she pulled her paw away immediately. _"There's magic involved, they're acting like zombies," _she thought, _"I'll have to go investigate."_

She kept low, hiding from any entranced jellicles she came across, even the ones she knew. Once, lying low beneath a garbage pile, she saw Cassandra, her face in anguish. _"It even affects Cassandra? Okay, whatever this is, it's powerful, thank the Everlasting Cat I couldn't hear a jet taking off."_

She made her way slowly, always scurrying from hiding place to hiding place as she went. The feeling of powerful magic grew as she got closer, it was strong but it didn't entrance her, but her paws shook as she felt it through the ground and any objects she touched.

As she neared the clearing, she realized she needed a safe place to spy from, so she scrambled up onto a garbage pile and hid among the trash as she crawled on her belly until the whole sceme lay before her.

There was Macavity, the one they had told her about, her eyes went wide when she saw him. He was standing on the great tire, playing a flute, Munkustrap lay at his feet, _nuzzling_ them.

Lyplora watched in silence, she couldn't lip read from this distance, but she could tell what was happening.

Macavity stepped playing the flute but the music still seemed to loom in the air, like a suffocating, thick, magic. Macavity lowered the flute and walked out into the middle of the clearing as the jellicles approached. He looked over them until he spotted what looked like the twins and had them step forward. They looked delighted to be picked and they stepped forward. Macavity pointed to a corner and they went to it to wait. Macavity continued to look over the tribe, usually picking out queen and making them stand next to him. Lyplora gasped as she watched Macavity pick out Victoria and run his tongue down her neck, and it looked like she had enjoyed it! But that was nothing compared to the shock Lyplora got when he came across Demeter. Macavity pulled Demeter out of the group of waiting jellicles and started feeling her over, running his paws over every inch of her body.

Suddenly Macavity turned and gestured for another cat to come and take the flute from him, but the cat who approached looked absolutely frightening. It was a small calico queen, but she was covered in scars from head to toe. huge, ugly scars where the fur wouldn't grow that stood out as bare skin among her calico coat. She laughed maddly as she took the flute and started nuzzling it and licking it._ "Okay that's just disturbing," _thought Lyplora.

Macavity kept one hand over Demeter's ass as he continued to sort the tribe, until he came across Tugger. Macavity looked him up and down and then called for a paw of sheers, which were brought quickly and he promptly handed to Tugger, who proceeded to trim off his mane.

Lyplora almost burst out laughing at this, but realized she had to stay quiet, so she clenched her mouth shut and kept watching.

Macavity then came across Mistoffelees, he made him come forward and stand in front of everybody, and he laughed and called for ropes. He took Misto and made him get up on the great tire, and tied him so he was standing and facing the tribe. Macavity showed them all one of his long claws and ran it harmlessly over Misto's face, not touching the skin. Misto had a sickened look of pure joy on his face because he was serving Macavity, but right before the Hidden Paw could begin the torture the impatient crowd of cats started to close in, and Macavity had to put off his fun while he attended to them, giving them orders.

Lyplora's face twisted with anger at the thought of what Macavity was going to do to him, and she begun to shake with rage. _"He won't do this to him, I'm not gonna let that bastard torture Misto to death like it's some kinda performance, he won't do this."_

She ran, not caring if she was seen, away from the clearing to come up with some plan. When she got back to her den, she paced back and fourth, considering what she could do.

_"If I just get to that flute, I could... Damn, they never tell you how to do anything like this at those Deaf Pride Seminars."_ she covered her face with her paw in frustration, the entire tribe was about to watch Misto be tortured and she didn't have a plan. She looked around desparately for anything, and her eyes landed on the pipe she had picked up earlier. _"Primitive as a weapon, but it will work,"_ she thought, picking it up and feeling how heavy it was.

She walked through the junkyard with her pipe in hand, she intended to do some damage with it. It was fully night by this time, as she made her way to the clearing, she clenched her jaw in anger, she wouldn't let this happen. _"I'm not letting Macavity take him from me,"_ she thought, as she stepped into the clearing, but then a horrific sight met her eyes. The tribe was beating Misto to death.


	23. A heart beating again

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: Marlee Matlin was the first ever deaf recipient of the best actress Oscar award, playing the lead role in 'Children of a Lesser God.'**

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><p>Without thinking Lyplora ran into the clearing, flailing the pipe like a shillaly, and the henchcats came to meet her. She wasn't very graceful with her weapon, she just waved it back and fourth, hitting any cats that came near. They came at her fast but she was able to fight them off, but what she wanted to do was get to Misto.<p>

She fought several off and tried to dart towards the tire but more came and stood in her way, she knocked them to the side and kept going, but there were always more.

The Jellicle tribe continued to beat Misto, but Macavity had seen Lyplora when she had first run into the clearing, and was watching, fascinated.

He sat and watched her fight his henchcats, not paying any attention to Misto anymore. Somehow Macavity found her intriguing.

Lyplora fought hard, beating any henchcats that came near her with the pipe, sending some running. It was an intense battle, she was surrounded but none of the henchcats got to because of how hard she was flailing that pipe.

Eventually Macavity seemed to get tired of watching her fight, so he turned his attention back to Misto and the tribe, but that was boring him too.

Misto fell to the ground, gasping, but Macavity hardly noticed as he got up and called off the henchcats with a wave of one paw.

All the henchcats turned and faced the Hidden Paw and so did Lyplora.

Macavity snapped his fingers and the tribe backed off of Misto, leaving his broken form on the great tire, now all attention was focused on Lyplora and Macavity.

Lyplora felt all eyes looking through her, but Macavity's eyes had captured her's, and she found herself unable to move.

"So, you were too far away to hear the music, not to worry, little fighter, that can be fixed," he said this in a playful sort of way, he loved taunting his enemies.

With one wave of his paw he summoned the scared calico and took the flute, she looked even worse up close. Her scars stood out as bulges and she shivered from the cold because of how little fur she had.

Macavity thanked her by biting her hard on the ear, and then threw her onto the ground and she crawled away, with a smile on her face.

Macavity simply held the flute for a moment, Lyplora looking at him with a face of stone, and then he raised it to his mouth and begun playing.

Lyplora's facial expression did not change at all as the music rang through the air, but Macavity's did. As he played he had an obvious look of superiority, but as he continued and there was no affect, his eyes widened until her lowered the flute and his mouth hung open.

He starred at her in fear, and she brandished her pipe at him to show she wasn't afraid.

"Get her," he said, barely above a whisper, and all the henchcats charged her.

Lyplora swung the pipe back and fourth like a baseball bat, hitting any cat that approached. Metal met fur, and the henchcats went running, or collapsed to the ground, gasping. It was through pure rage of swinging the pipe in every direction that kept them at bay, brutal but efficient.

The tribe was waiting behind macavity, longing for orders again, but the hidden paw was too focused on Lyplora to notice. He watched her fight and was frightened, he had no idea how she was unaffected by the flute, but he had no intentions of letting her win.

Lyplora fought hard, but with each swing she would take a step back, and eventually found herself up againsn't a high garbage pile. She couldn't fight and climb at the same time, she was trapped. All the henchcats descended upon her now, knowing she couldn't hold them off in this vulnerable position, but Lyplora wasn't going to be caught.

She screamed at the top of her lungs, and trust me when I say, deaf people can make the walls shake when they scream. All the henchcats literally dropped to the ground gripping their ears for a moment, and that was enough for her to slip past them as they recovered from the shock.

Macavity's eyes went wide and with a wave of his paw he sent the whole tribe after her. Lyplora turned and saw them, all charging her at once. She knew she didn't stand a chance agains't the masses, so she made a mad dash for another garbage pile, hoping to take the high ground.

The tribe was gaining on her, so Lyplora shot a few harmless rays of blue light at them, making them scatter because they didn't know she was a healer.

Most stopped in their tacks as she made it to the garbage pile, they were out of breath and so was she, but she had formed an idea in her head and she was going to go through with it, however crazy.

There was an old car at the top of this pile, with just an old stump of wood under one tire that was keeping it from rolling to the bottom. Lyplora climbed up to it, hoping for the life of her that nobody would get crushed. But when she was about to pull out the stump of wood, Macavity shot a bolt of lightning and it barely went missed top of her head. She jerked around and saw him, he was running towards her, and he shot another bolt of lightning.

Lyplora dodged it by jumping into the front seat of the car which tilted forward as she did.

Macavity was running up the hill at top speed, determined to capture her, but the next lightning bolt he shot was a mistake. He fired it but tripped as he did so, missing his target and hitting the stump under the car's tire which blew up, and the car rolled down the hill.

Lyplora jumped onto the hood and surfed on it as it rolled down the hill, jellicles scattering out of the way as she 's eyes went wide as he watched her riding on the car hood, she was heading straight towards him.

The wind blew through her fur and she watched as Macavity had to jump out of the way also, tossing the flute to the side as he went.

Lyplora jumped off the hood of the car as it was still rolling, catching the flute in the air. The car rolled into the clearing and smashed into another garbage pile.

Macavity turned over and saw Lyplora holding the flute in the air, "no don't!" he yelled, but it was too late, Lyplora had brought the flute to her brought mouth. She blew into it as hard as she could, running her fingers over the holls randomly, producing a high, screeching sound which pierced the air.

Everbody clenched up and covered their ears at the painful noise, but they couldn't block it out and the spell was broken as if it had shattered like glass.

Suddenly, all the jellicles started turning and looking at each other, and their eyes widened as the realization of what had happened struck.

"MACAVITY!"

Macavity sprang to his feet but was met by the jellicle protecter, who caught his face with his claws. Macavity struck back, punching Munkustrap hard in the face, but more jellicles came forward and took blows at him.

Macavity dodged back and fourth between the jellicles, sometimes getting struck, but now that the spell was broken and his henchcats had fled, he was on his own.

But suddenly Macavity surpsrised them all by using his powers to push them all back to where they stood around him in a circle. He spread his claws and used his powers to make the cats that surrounded him freeze, and he begun to choke them.

The rest of the tribe was coming, but Macavity cast a freezing spell on all of them so they couldn't move. He bit into his lip as he squeezed his few victims throats tighter and tighter, making them sink to their knees.

Lyplora watched and started to shake all over, she looked back at the fallen body of Misto and back at the face of Macavity as images of Orangelow flashed before her eyes. In an instant she had gotten the pipe and was running at Macavity with it. Her blood was boiling and she could hardly believe what she had resolved to do right then and there. She saw the dead body of Orangelow before her eyes for a split moment as she struck the Hidden Paw with all the force she could muster, and suddenly he was on the ground in front of her, his skull bashed in where she had struck with the pipe.

Munkustrap and the other cats around her were suddenly able to breathe again, and the rest of the tribe ran up to them.

"Lyplora?" asked one, but Lyplora pushed past them, she couldn't look at the cat she had just killed.

She ran across the yard and they followed solumnly as she reached the great tire where the motionless Misto lay.

She jumped up onto the tire and knelt down next to his body, panting, telling herself he was just unconscious. She picked him up and laid his head in her lap, and she placed her paw over his heart, closing her eyes as she felt for the beat of his heart, which wasn't there.

She started screaming again at the top of her lungs and tears started to pour down her face as she held Mistoffelees, and the other cats begun to encircle her, some asking that she be taken away because she didn't understand.

She starred down at his face, and once again the images of Orangelow flashed before her eyes.

Suddenly, a strange queen approached and tried to pull her away, but Lyplora screamed at her and lashed out and scratched the paw that reached for her and she gripped the body more tightly. She wouldn't let them take him away from her, and as she pictured what she had just done to Macavity, she wasn't going to let death take Misto away either.

_"I'm not losing you! You brought the magic into my life, and you brought the magic out of me!"_

She started to breathe deeply and the tribe watched in silence. Lyplora wasn't going to let him go, she placed one paw over Misto's heart and started opening and closing it, trying to get Misto's heart to follow. She closed her eyes and mouthed the words to the spell, knowing she couldn't live with herself if she failed. Her paw started glowing and the tribe gasped, except for the twins, and she moved her paw with more and more force and strength until it was moving like this on it's on. She moved her paw like a beating heart as it glowed in the moonlight, it felt like all time had stopped. She felt the magic flowing through her system and leaving her body, and she felt her strength waning, and for one terrifying moment she was afraid it wouldn't work.

_"Everlasting Cat, please don't take Misto away from me, I've already lost one love long ago, don't take this one away from me also!"_

Suddenly, she felt the pounding of his heart and she kept going, feeling it working until the rhythm of Misto's heart beat engulfed her being. She felt him come back, as his heart beat to the rhythm she set she felt him come back. He gasped as his eyes opened and he breathed again.

Lyplora's tears of sorrow turned into tears of joy as she looked into Misto's eyes, his eyes shone with a light which was more alive than he had ever been before. "Lyplora," he breathed, as he reached towards her face to wipe away the tears.

The tribe watched in silent awe.


	24. The ball

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS, or the poem Lyplora recites in this chapter!**

**FACT: cochlear implants do not cure deafness. It actually is work listening with one, because you're hearing mechanically. Cochlear implants also take away the ability to hear ambiant noise, which can be dangerous to a deaf person who can pick up on ambiant noise but not voices, because hearing that can help them know what's happening around them better. Like if a car is coming. Also, if the cochlear doesn't work for the person in question, it is a major surgery removing it, and most doctors won't do it.**

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><p>Lyplora helped Misto to his feet, after staggering for a moment, he stood on his own. The jellicle moon peered out from behind the clowds, shining on Misto and Lyplora, and the whole yard felt its peace. Not an utterance was made, the whole junkyard just watched. You could literally hear everyone breathing it was so quiet, you could almost hear the resonance coming from the stars. Everyone was waiting to see what would happen next.<p>

Lyplora and Misto looked around at the expactent faces, but then everyone turned their heads as Old Deuteronomy parted the crowd. He finally made it to the front, walking very slowly, but standing straight and tall as he reached the great tire. The jellicle leader looked up at Lyplora and Misto earnestly, reaching out towards them the same way he did towards Grizabella, nodding slightly, and Lyplora nodded back.

Lyplora turned back to Misto, with a look on her face that said, "well, they're waiting," and Misto nodded and pulled Lyplora into a passionate kiss, right there under the Jellicle moon.

At this the whole junkyard broke into a roaring applause, and just to add to it, Lyplora popped her foot up while the kiss was still going on. "All hail our hero, the slayer of Macavity!" cried the jellicles. Lyplora asked Misto what they were saying, but when he told her she was unhappy because she didn't feel like much of a hero.

When the kiss ended Lyplora looked around at the other jellicles, and suddenly the crowd parted once again, this time revealing the jellicle protecter, carrying the body of Macavity. He came up to the great tire and laid the body in front of it, bowing as he backed up into the crowd.

Lyplora looked down at the body of Macavity, disgusted by what brutul measures she had had to resort to. But at the same time, she was glad no more cats would have to live in fear of the Nepoleon of crime ever again.

"Let us despose of the corpse, in a dignified way, as he was our greatest enemy," announced Old D, knowing it was better to hurry this along.

The tribe formed a huge circle, and Macavity's body was placed in the middle. As some cat doused the body in lighter fluid and set it ablaze, Lyplora looked away, she couldn't stand to see it. This wasn't what she wanted to be known for. Misto put his arm around her as the body was burnt, wanting her to know that he wasn't going to leave her again. Lyplora turned her head and looked at the burning body of Macavity, at the one who had almost taken Misto away from her. She watched in deep contemplation.

Suddenly, Tantomile scurried up to the tire, looking frantic. "follow me," she signed, pointing over her shoulder. "There's something you need to see."

After a moment's hesitation they followed her, away from the tribe and the body burning until they reached the water hole. There, curled up in a blanket, was the calico queen who Macavity had abused. Next to her was Cassandra, stroking her head and talking to her soothingly, "it'll be okay, nobody's going to do that to you again."

Tanto stopped them before they got too close, "she remembers everything Macavity did to her... she's afraid of all toms, that's why Cori isn't here. She's mentally scarred, she doesn't even remember her name, it's been supressed to the point that even I can't find it. She says she wants to die, because of what's happened. What do you think, Lyplora?" Tanto signed.

Lyplora just nodded, they were all thinking the exact same thing. "Misto," she signed, turning back to the tux, "lets go back to the ball, since we'd have to wait until just before dawn, she's okay here until then." She nodded one more time to Tanto and waved to Cassi and then she and Misto headed back to the clearing.

When they got there, they found that there was nothing left of the body of the Hidden Paw, it was now no more than a burnt out mark in the middle of the clearing. Now Bomba was leading the queens at a slightly modified version of Macavity's song, singing it to be more in memory of their famous foe. The crowd parted as the song ended and the cat who was now their hero stepped forward. The lights went dark suddenly, Lyplora thought this odd, until one of the spotlights pointed at her. She was standing right in the middle, right where they had burned Macavity's body, all watching expectantly. Lyplora knew they wanted to see something great, now that they saw her as a hero. She gestured toward Misto and he joined her, her heart aching as she thought of what she almost lost.

"They want to be amazed, all I was planning, was reciting a poem. Will you do the honors, interpreter?"

Misto nodded and announced what they were going to do, and then stood to the side so they could focus on Lyplora using sign language to recite this. Even though they were hearing Misto's voice interpreting, all eyes were on Lyplora, it was her emotions they were feeling and seeing as she passionately signed her poem.

"You don't know it, but sometimes I go to a hill  
>that overlooks the landscapes mask of city<br>lights, for a sip of momentary grace.

On this brink of everything I know,  
>I can gain an eyeful of the lost Atlantis in the jellicle soul,<br>and a breath that fills my longs with the air between two stars.

If you were now to capture the image of this elation,  
>in the framework of your mind.<br>Or find transcendence through these words.  
>Than at most, you would know nothing,<br>of the beauty your existence throws to me..."

Misto trailed off here, looking at Lyplora in amazement, he felt speechless, but with the tribe watching he had to continue.

"For mine is a love no experience,  
>no measure, no words,<br>could ever degrade into reality by virtue of degree..."

the last words he could barely get out, he felt the exact same way, and even more so. He walked back over to her, but suddenly Lyplora was down on one knee. "I know it's unconventional for the queen to propose, but let me excercise my feminist views and be the one to ask. Will you become my mate, tonight?" signed Lyplora, grinning broadly as she asked.

Misto almost collapsed again, he was planning on proposing that night also. Lyplora had to steady him and once again there was an aplause for the two lovers, while Victoria stood near the front, smiling from ear to ear.

The next number was done by Admetus, his kittens had been practicing hard and sang together in a choir. Most of the jellicles had trouble sitting through this, ashamed that they had let a parent struggle on his own.

The ball was more sumbar than expected, most of the songs were in minor keys, it didn't seem appropriate to do something lighthearted after all that had happened. They did growltiger's last stand, Asparagus Jr playing Growltiger since his dad had gone heaviside the year before.

When it was time for the mating dance, Misto and Lyplora were once again in the center, and their mating dance was magnificent. The two danced their love gloriously, the magician and the healer. Two magical cats. And the scene that followed, well, lets just say I would probably go to hell if I described it. Hehe.

Once the main part of the ball was over, Lyplora started to really get anxious, she wanted to help that young calico queen. Finally, just before dawn, Munkustrap announced that Old Deuteronomy was about to make the Jellicle choice. All of the Jellicles gathered around old Deuteronomy, but then Tanto and Cassi appeared on the side, bringing forward the calico queen. Lyplora stood up and pointed at her, everyone was taken aback, not sure if they should help her because she had once belonged to Macavity. There was a pause, but then Lyplora made up her mind and walked over to the young queen and put her arm around her. She looked seriously at the tribe and with her free hand signed, "you want to praise me as a hero, for killing your greatest enemy. Even as I stand on this spot where his body was burned to ash, I don't want to be known as a killer. I want to be known as one who brings joy and laughter, but also as one who heals. This queen next to me, has had everything taken away from her. I don't know if through my abilities, I could somehow restore everything her life would have been, but I know if anyone should have a new life, it is her." Cassandra spoke as Lyplora signed this, but all eyes were on Lyplora, they way they should've been.

Old Deuteronomy slowly approached, consenting that she would be sent heaviside. But the calico queen hid behind Lyplora, and Tanto told Old D, "she's afraid of toms."

Old Deuteronomy stepped back, and reached out towards Lyplora. "Then lets have, our healer, take her up to the Heaviside Lair."

At this the whole tribe started singing 'Journey to the Heavside Lair." Lyplora led her to the great tire, and the calico queen almost started crying from joy. She looked around at the tribe, and then at the queen who was leading her up to the great tire. She saw Lyplora smiling at her and wanting her to know that it would all be okay now.

As they climbed on top of the great tire, and it begun to rise into the air, fog begun to fill the yard as they slowly made their ascension. All the jellicle sang out as they rose higher and higher, and Lyplora drew in a deep breath as she thought,_ "this is what I want to be known for tonight, giving back a life, not taking one."_ And then the paw shaped ladder came down out of the clouds, sparkling brilliantly. The calico queen shyly begun to climb the ladder, turning only once to see Lyplora reach out toward her and mouth the word, "go," before she started to go higher and higher, and the ladder to the Heaviside Lair dissapeared into the clouds, and the tire floated back toward the ground.

The ball was finished by Old Deuteronomy singing 'The Addressing of Cats," but Lyplora and Misto snuck off while the song was still being sung. The night had ended the way Lyplora had wanted it to end, she would be seen as the one who had given lives back, not taken them. And she had her love, Misto, and they would never be separated again.

"Your den, or mine, interpreter?" asked Lyplora playfully, as she and Misto headed away from the clearing, the jellicle moon smiling down on them.

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><p><strong>Sorry I left this story so long, I sorta don't want to end it, it makes me sad that now all I have left to do is the epilogue. Since this is my first story, can everyone tell me what they think? I love criticism, good or bad. Thanks for reading!<strong>


	25. epilogue

**Disclaimer: I don't own CATS!**

**Fact: deaf people have had to fight for the right to just be.**

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><p>Six months after the jellicle ball<p>

It was near twilight, the setting sun casting a few last long beams of light across the land as it sank in the west. Lyplora stretched out on a tire, watching Addie's kittens playing with the other kits, and their dad talking to some of the other parents. She smiled at the sight, and slowly ran her paw over her slightly protruding belly, wondering what her own kits would be like.

Suddenly, she tensed up as she felt the air move behind her, and out of nowhere a paw covered her eyes so that she couldn't see. Lyplora turned her head this way and that, knowing by the scent that it was her mate playing a trick on her, and when the paw was pulled away, there was Misto, levitating a silver chain with a single pearl hanging from it.

Lyplora gasped as she looked from her mate to the necklace, "Happy birthday," signed Misto, with a quirky grin on his face. "So what's it like to be 24?"

Lyplora stiffled back a laugh as Misto leaned forward and fastened the necklace around her neck, below her spiked collar. "You didn't have to do this, you know that right?" she signed, but Misto waved off her protest and rested his paw over her stomach, biting his lip.

"My big daddy cat," she signed, giggling, as she reached down with her other paw and put it over Misto's. Then both of their eyes met for a second, and Lyplora signed with a serious look on her face, "thanks Misto, this is the best birthday present anyone has ever given me."

Misto nodded, looking at her earnestly, "it's your birthday, of course."

Lyplora shook her head and looked back at the kittens playing, "I wonder if our humans will be okay with the kittens?"

"you won't have to worry, my magic is good for more than just parlor tricks."

Lyplora raised an eyebrow, she seemed to learn more about the tuxe's magic every day.

"By the way, why aren't your cousins here? It is your Birthday."

"They're still practicing that meditation stuff they tried to get me into a while ago, they haven't left their den in weeks, surviving off of nothing but pure will power and the life force of the universe."

The tux starred at his mate like she had gone crazy, but then she cracked up, not able to keep a straight face. "Just messing with you, no they're coming later."

Suddenly, Cassi jumped up on a tire near them, and then gracefully approached, carrying a small cake with a single candle in it.

"Happy Birthday," she said and signed, putting down the cake. "Lyplora, I know you wanted to eat healthy until you have the kittens, but it's your Birthday, make an exception."

Lyplora rolled her eyes and sat up, still rubbing her stomach affectionately. The day after the Jellicle Ball, Lyplora and Cassi discussed the hearing spell, and after Lyplora assuring her that they were still friends and they could still use sign together and relate, Cassi decided to get it done. It worked pretty well, giving Cassi her full hearing back, which she enjoyed. Really her reason for getting it done, was how frustrated she would get trying to listen to others all day, because she always had to listen hard and she found herself mentally exhausted from it. Lyplora was supportive of her friend and understood, that only catching bits of what's said must of been frustrating, so she got why Cassi would want it. But even then, Cassi found that she still preffered using sign language with the few Jellicles who knew it, because of how the language brought her such wonderful friends who could understand her.

The tribe treated Lyplora a lot better now, but as Lyplora had joked, the novelty of being a deaf hero wore off. She was fine with that, although there had been word that they were going to reenact her heroic battle agaisn't Macavity at the next Jellicle ball, she wanted to forget that whole part and move on to where she had helped a hurt queen begin again. (She also hoped that if they did, Tugger wouldn't decide to do any random bagpipe solos) She had without even thinking about it, vanquished their greatest enemy, and now the tribe lived with a new found security thanks to her.

She was now the tribes healer, which was what she had wanted to be from the time she discovered that she had magic. She had to deal with the queens coming to her and bawling and explaining repeatedly when it was obvious the kitten just had a scratch. She got the oddest cases, one queen getting stuck in a split, Pouncival getting tangled in electrical wires and getting shocked, mass diarrhea after another one of Rumpus Cat's parties. Most of the patients seemed awkward around her, but she had fun with it, as they would babble on about how amazing she was for doing any small thing or would try to show her sympathy, she could laugh anything off. She realized that, after saving everyone's asses, it took a lot of effort to act that way, although she didn't like the fact that she had never gotten an apology from Bomba.

Lyplora thought over these things as she watched Admetus talking to Bomba, who looked awkward, like she felt guilty and wanted to leave. She watched them for another minute, and then turned her attention toward Tugger's den, hoping she didn't look too guilty as she knew he would have run into her little surprise right about then. But her attention was brought back to what they were doing when Misto waved his paw and she looked up at him.

"Lyplora, wanna light the candle and make a wish?"

"Well...I have something to show you..." she signed, the guilt beginning to show through her poker face.

"Lyplora, what did you do?" asked Cassi, realizing that the blushing queen was hiding something.

"Oh Cat you didn't," signed Misto, looking over Lyplora's shoulder at Tugger's den, wide eyed.

"I did, and Tugger should come out and show us in about...five... four... three.. signed Lyplora, and she counted down on her fingers. When she got to one, she pointed at Tugger's den, and Tugger exploded out the door screaming, covered with feathers and honey, causing a crowd to gather.

As Etcetera gave chase to her now feathered idol across the junkyard, Misto smacked himself in the face, trying to stop from laughing, and Cassi just rolled her eyes.

Lyplora looked one last time at the rediculous scene that was taking place below, and then turned back to the two Jellicles. Pretending to look innocent, she raised both her arms and asked, "what?"

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><p><strong>Okay people, this is the end to my first story. How did I handle it? What did I do well, what did I do wrong? I'm really sad ending this thing, I can't believe this story is over, it's like I'm saying goodbye to a friend. <strong>

**By the way, did I do a decent job of developing the character of Lyplora? Because after Marlee Matlin won an Oscar for best leading actress in Children of a Lesser God, some really nasty critics said all she had done was play a stock character who happened to be deaf, which was of course not true. Still, how did I do with the character? Did anybody think she was just a generic, stock character, that was undecernable from any other besides the fact that she's deaf? **

**Peace, love, and all that jazz!**


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